Final answer:
The false statement related to Jane Elliot's demonstration is that the brown-eyed children's academic performance did not suffer when mistreated, whereas it actually did decline.
Step-by-step explanation:
The false statement regarding Jane Elliot's demonstration with blue-eyed and brown-eyed children is: Although the brown-eyed children were being mistreated by Jane Elliot, their academic performance and test scores did not suffer. In fact, the exercise revealed that the group labeled as inferior (e.g., the brown-eyed children on the first day) performed worse on tasks, showing a decline in academic performance. This false assertion is inconsistent with the outcomes reported from the exercise, which included lower test scores and more errors made by the children who were deemed inferior. When the roles were reversed in the experiment, the previously 'superior' group also experienced similar effects. Elliot's demonstration was a powerful portrayal of how quickly prejudice and discrimination can take hold and the negative impact it has on performance and self-esteem.
Jane Elliot's exercise was designed to demonstrate that judging one group of people (in this case, children with blue eyes) as superior results in prejudice against people who are not part of the favored category. This ties back to the historical context of segregation and the groundbreaking work done by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, whose work highlighted the psychological harm of segregation on African American children, as referenced in the Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Jane Elliot's demonstration is often used to illustrate the arbitrary and superficial nature of racial prejudice, related to the fact that eye color, like skin color, is a superficial characteristic and a poor basis for judgment.