The Third Wave was an experimental demonstration of nazism movement[1][2] undertaken by history teacher Ron Jones with sophomore high school students attending his Contemporary History class[1] as part of a study of Nazi Germany.[3] The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, during first week of April 1967. Jones, unable to explain to his students how the German populace could claim ignorance of the extermination of the Jewish people, decided to show them instead.[3] Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and convinced his students that the movement is to eliminate democracy.[1]
The fact that democracy emphasizes individuality was considered as a
drawback of democracy, and Jones emphasized this main point of the
movement in its motto: "Strength through discipline, strength through
community, strength through action, strength through pride".[1]
The experiment was not well documented. Of contemporary sources, the
experiment is only mentioned in Cubberley High School student newspaper
The Cubberley Catamount. It is only briefly mentioned in two issues[4][5], and one more issue of the paper has articles about this experiment, but without much detail.[1] The most detailed account of the experiment is an essay written by Jones himself some six years afterwards.[3] Several other articles about the experiment exist, but all of them were written after a considerable amount of time had passed.[2]
The 1981 TV special The Wave, the 1988 book The Wave and the 2008 German film Die Welle were based on the experiment.
Chronology
Jones writes that he started the first day of the experiment (Monday, April 3 1967)
with simple things like proper seating, drilling the students until
they were able to move from outside the classroom to their seats and
take the proper seating position in less than 30 seconds without making
a sound.[3]
He then proceeded to strict classroom discipline emerging as an
authoritative figure and improving efficiency of the class dramatically.
Jones closed the first day's session with a few rules. Students had
to be sitting at attention before the second bell, had to stand up to
ask or answer questions and had to do it in three words or less, and
were required to preface each remark with "Mr. Jones."[3]
On the second day he managed to meld his history class into a group with a supreme sense of discipline and community.[3] Jones named the movement "The Third Wave", after the common belief that the third in a series of ocean waves is last and largest.[3] Jones made up a salute similar to the one of Nazi regime[1] and ordered class members to salute each other even outside the class. They all complied with this command.[3]
The experiment took on a life of its own, with students from all
over the school joining in: on the third day the class expanded from
initial 30 students to 43 attendees. All of the students showed drastic
improvement in their academic skills and tremendous motivation. All of
the students were issued a member card and each of them received a
special assignment (like designing a Third Wave Banner, stopping
non-members from entering the class, etc). Jones instructed the
students on how to initiate new members, and by the end of the day the
movement had over 200 participants.[3]
Jones was surprised that some of the students started reporting to him
when other members of the movement failed to abide by the rules.[3]
On Thursday, the fourth day of the experiment, Jones decided to
terminate the movement because it was slipping out of his control. The
students became increasingly involved in the project and their
discipline and loyalty to the project was astounding. He announced to
the participants that this movement is only a part of a nationwide
movement and that on the next day a presidential candidate of the
movement would publicly announce existence of the movement. Jones
ordered students to attend a noon rally on Friday to witness the
announcement.[3]
Instead of a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with an empty channel. After few minutes of waiting, Jones announced that they have been a part of an experiment in fascism
and that they all willingly created a sense of superiority that German
citizens had in the period of Nazi Germany. He then played them a film
about Nazi regime. That was the end of the experiment.[3]
[edit] Reaction
Despite the clear implications of this study on the malleability of young minds, which is of particular interest to psychologists seeking to understand and prevent abuse of it, little has surfaced on the subject; Todd Strasser, under the pen name Morton Rhue, wrote a young-adult novel on the subject entitled The Wave,
after it had been made into a TV movie (1981); later, Jones himself
came forward with his own material. Researchers of the experiment have
had some trouble in eliciting reports from any of the students
involved. Hence, nearly all detailed information about The Third Wave
comes from Ron Jones himself. Another film based on the subject was
later released theatrically (2008). In this version, the experiment was transferred to modern-day Germany.
- In 2006, a middle school history class in Florida attempted to recreate the experiment with even younger children.[6]
Well, I managed to watch both movies, the older one (1981), which is American and I think more truthful to the real story, and the German more modern one (2008), which is more dramatic. I liked both of them and they are really food for thought, but I personally think it was a very dangerous experiment. Playing with young inmature minds can really backfire no matter how good our intentions might have been in the process. Good stuff, anyway. I recommend both of them. The first one is better for your English as it is American, undubbed version, of course, but the second one in German with English subtitles can be worth watching too.
ReplyDelete