teacher hitler experiment

Palo Alto Online

The Wave that changed the world

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The classroom guards, symbolic armbands and secret salutes carried out by members of an elite student movement at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto may have ended decades ago, but that brief, ominous week in April 1967 when a history lesson took an unexpected turn continues to have worldwide impact on the eve of its 50th anniversary.

The Third Wave began as an experiment in the classroom of first-year history teacher Ron Jones to simulate fascism in World War II and demonstrate to skeptical students how the Nazi Party rose to power. Over five days, the movement took on a life of its own as it spread from the 30 sophomores in Jones’ homeroom class to more than 200 students from all three high schools in the Palo Alto school district eager to pledge allegiance to a social movement that promised acceptance and reward to those who obediently followed its rigid rules.

“It started out as a fun game with the most popular teacher at school,” said Mark Hancock, one of the students in Jones’ Contemporary World History homeroom class. “He told us, ‘If you’re an active participant, I’ll give you an A; if you just go along with it, I’ll give you a C; if you try a revolution, I’ll give you an F, but if your revolution succeeds, I’ll give you an A.’

“I was a mischievous 15-year-old, and I remember right away, I wanted to be one of those revolutionaries who got an A. … But it went well beyond (grades) pretty quickly, and at the end, I was scared to death.”

Jones posted student guards at the classroom door, ordered students to march into class and sit at attention with their hands clasped behind them. He taught them to salute each other with a curved hand similar to the salute used during the Nazi regime. To avoid rebellion, he made it illegal for any party members to congregate in groups larger than three outside of class — a rule that had to be followed 24/7. He used students as secret police and held public trials to banish “resistors” to the library with a reduced grade, according to an account by student reporter Bill Klink that appeared in the school newspaper, “The Catamount,” on April 21, 1967.

At the time, no one realized the experiment would become a significant catalyst for much broader discussions about bullying, history, peer pressure, fascism and psychology or inspire multiple stage productions, a musical, movies and books. In more than 32 countries, study of the Third Wave has become part of the classroom curriculum, including in Israel and Germany, where the story is a high school reading requirement.

Palo Alto City Historian Steve Staiger said the Third Wave is among the most-asked-about topics, behind the Grateful Dead and developer Joseph Eichler’s homes.

“It’s become one of the more significant historic events in Palo Alto’s past,” Staiger said.

But back in 1967, the classroom experiment drew little attention. Local media didn’t report on it, parents quickly dismissed it and most of Jones’ students seemed to drop the subject the following week when they moved on to a history lesson about Vietnam. Life went on with no one publicly talking about the experiment for an entire decade until Jones unexpectedly bumped into a former student on a street in Berkeley who immediately gave him the secret salute. That brief encounter inspired Jones to write a short article in a local magazine about his Third Wave experience, which captured the attention of Hollywood and beyond. The 1981 film “The Wave” and subsequent book of the same name are based on his article.

Hancock, too, eventually decided to speak out about those five days during his sophomore year that had gnawed at him for more than 40 years.

“‘It had gotten to be such a big story — obviously something much bigger than all of us — that I knew the time was right to talk to the other students and give us a voice,” said Hancock in telephone interview from his Seattle home last week.

At the same time, former classmate and Hollywood film editor Philip Neel (“Twin Peaks,” “Boston Common”) said he had decided to begin tracking down classmates to get their take on the experiment after discovering that his two daughters were learning about the Third Wave in their southern California school.

The duo ultimately teamed up and produced the 2010 award-winning documentary “Lesson Plan,” which weaves together personal accounts from schoolmates, Jones, parents and former Principal Scott Thomson.

On March 22, the Palo Alto History Museum will show the film for the first time in Palo Alto during a special event at the school site where it all happened (now Cubberley Community Center) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Third Wave experiment. Hancock, Neel and Jones will be on hand to answer questions.

“It wasn’t until we started doing the movie that I found out the depth of what had really happened. We were all blindsided by how everything unfolded at the time,” said Neel over the telephone from his southern California home.

The experiment

Jones had just graduated from Stanford University when he was hired at Cubberley during the 1966-’67 school year. At the time, Cubberley was a freewheeling school that prided itself on being experimental, and Jones, who liked to bring in guest speakers and conduct unorthodox lessons, quickly became a favorite teacher on campus, Hancock recalled.

“He was very charismatic and his classes were really fun. They were so good that if a particular speaker came to campus, other kids in other classes would sneak out and watch our class,” Hancock said. “A lot of students wished they had him as their teacher, and we knew we were lucky.”

No one had any reason to be alarmed that April when a student asked how could the Nazis have been so appealing to the general population that no one spoke up during the Holocaust, and Jones responded, “I don’t know. Let’s try an experiment. I will be the dictator, and you will be the movement,” Hancock recalled.

The following Monday, Jones ordered the students to address him as Mr. Jones, instead of Ron. He lectured them on the benefits of discipline and ordered them to practice the proper way to sit and stand at perfect attention through repeated drills.

“It was really only meant to be a one-hour exercise,” Jones said in an interview with the Weekly. “I definitely wanted the students to have some understanding of the Holocaust. I thought it would be a stepping stone into what it was like to be in a totalitarian state if they followed the directions of a teacher in a marshal-like way.”

When Jones returned to class the next day, he discovered the students sitting in the same posture that he had left them in the previous day with “these zipper smiles on their faces,” Jones said.

He thought, “Oh my gosh, what is this about?” and spontaneously, like improv, Jones went to the blackboard and wrote the slogans, “strength through discipline,” and “strength through community.” The class began to chant the words in unison, and a movement was born.

“There was this excitement about being part of a community,” Jones said.

In class that day, he created the secret salute and gave the group the name, “The Third Wave” — surfer lingo used to describe the last and strongest wave in a series of swells.

“When the bell sounded ending the period, I asked the class for complete silence. With everyone sitting at attention I slowly raised my arm and with a cupped hand I saluted,” Jones recalled in his article, “The Third Wave, 1967: an account.” “It was a silent signal of recognition. They were something special. Without command the entire group of students returned the salute.”

The next day, Jones issued membership cards to any student that wanted to continue in the Wave. Not a single student elected to leave the room, he said.

Then, he had the students put their heads down and secretly tapped three of them on the shoulder. Whoever received a tap was given the special assignment to report any students not complying to the Wave’s rules.

“I remember not being tapped and thinking, ‘I’m going to miss out on something here,'” Hancock said. “This is when it was still a fun little game. But then, he started rolling out the rules.”

Anyone accused of not following the rules faced a public trial.

“In the morning, he would come in and stand at the front of the class with us sitting up straight,” Hancock recalled. “Then, he would pull a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket, and he would say a name. That person would stand up, and he would say, ‘My secret police have informed me that you have broken a rule. What do you have to say for yourself? … If we are going to be a disciplined group and do great things, we can’t have a rule breaker here.'”

He would then ask the students one by one, “Is this person guilty?” until he had everyone chanting “guilty, guilty, guilty,” Hancock added. “It scared the hell out of me.”

Once convicted, the student was exiled from the Wave and not allowed to come back to class.

“I had no idea it would go this far, but it grew exponentially,” Jones said. “By the third day, other students were cutting class to be in the Wave, and by the fourth day, they were migrating from Paly and Gunn to be part of it.”

Jones said the experiment reached its turning point for him on Day 3 when a student body guard accompanied him into the teachers’ faculty room.

“There was an English teacher sitting there who said, ‘Hey, students aren’t allowed in here.’ And this child said, ‘I’m not a student, I’m a bodyguard.’ I knew at that very moment that that young adult had crossed some invisible line, and this was no longer a game or classroom activity. It was something real to this person, and I was crossing the same line,” Jones said. “I was beginning to like the order and the adulation. It was pretty intoxicating.”

Jones kept waiting for someone to step in and stop the experiment — but no one ever did. The parents, the faculty, the students all trusted him without question.

“By now, I’m deep into it and I’m thinking, ‘How is this going to end?’ I was hoping some faculty member would come into the room and challenge it … but that teacher never arrived.”

Even the principal, Jones said, liked the fact that students seemed more ordered and weren’t roaming the halls.

At the end of the week, Jones dropped a bombshell on the students: He entered the class and pulled the curtain across the windows to darken the room. He was no longer smiling.

He lowered his voice and told the students he had an important announcement: “The Third Wave isn’t just an experiment. … It’s real,” Hancock recalled.

The students had been chosen to be part of a new third political party that was going to revolutionize American politics. He told them their national political leader would unveil himself during a televised speech at a rally that afternoon.

“That was the turning point for me. I had this horrible sense of being trapped,” Hancock said.

That afternoon, students piled into the auditorium carrying posters, chanting and believing the large number of “reporters” and “cameramen” documenting the event were from real outlets, not part of Jones’ experiment.

When Jones turned on the television, however, only white snow appeared on the screen.

Everyone silently sat in position waiting and waiting for their leader to appear. Several minutes passed and nothing happened.

Moments later, video of the Nuremberg Rally started on a giant screen against the wall, displaying Hitler and the Third Reich.

“Listen closely, I have something important to tell you,” Jones recounted in his article. “Sit down. There is no leader. There is no such thing as a national youth movement called the Third Wave. You have been used. Manipulated. Shoved by your own desires into the place you now find yourself. You are no better or worse than the German Nazis we have been studying.”

Jones said there was a wide range of reactions.

Hancock said he remembers some students cried, while others said they knew it was a joke all along. Others, like him, had run out of the rally in fear before Jones made his final announcement.

Jones said silence was the common experience shared by all. No one publicly spoke about that rally for 10 years.

“That was really the genesis of that student question, ‘How could the Germans behave that way after the war?'” Jones said. “Silence is what happens when you feel shame.”

Neel said when it was over, his initial reaction was, “Wow. That was an amazing experience, and boy did I learn a lesson.”

He said there are some who see the documentary and say Jones should have never conducted the experiment in the first place and are upset that his students still endorse him today.

“My feeling is the opposite,” Neel said. “It was a given that what he was doing was ethically wrong, but the lesson he taught far outweighed (that).”

Neel called the experience a wake-up call that has had lifelong impact.

“I think I process things differently now,” said Neel, who remains leery about joining any kind of group and questions everything he hears and reads.

Jones launched the Wave just two months before the Summer of Love got into full swing. It was a time of unwanted war, protests and racial integration taking place for the first time.

“With the unrest that all of that brought, there was a sense that maybe we could change these things,” Jones said. That made the Wave appealing, especially to the boys who were facing the draft in two years.

Hancock said he remembered thinking, “I don’t want to get drafted. Maybe this is a good thing even though I don’t like how this feels.”

There also were grades to think about and the peer pressure of being part of an elite group.

“Jones pulled it off so well because we could identify so easily with him,” Neel said. “He was young, he spoke our language, and we felt very comfortable with him.”

He didn’t make the experiment racist or anti-Semitic, Hancock added.

“If he had crossed that line and asked us to turn against each other, it might have been a different outcome,” he said.

The biggest appeal was the way Jones conducted the experiment, Hancock said.

“What people don’t understand is the way that Jones rolled out the Wave. We got sucked into it because it was gradual,” Hancock said. “By the time you felt trapped, there wasn’t much you could do. The reality is that it was your social studies class, and you really couldn’t go anyplace else. The only thing you could have done is take the game to a new level and be a revolutionary or try to get out through the administration, but that didn’t seem like a possible avenue because everyone was part of the Wave as far as you knew.”

Hancock, who now travels the globe to speak to students about the Wave, said the experiment was an emotional milestone in their lives.

“Most of us have very strong memories of it,” he said. “But the reality is not everyone had the same experience. Each one of us had to make the decision during that time whether we were going to be for it, resist it or just try to stay out of the way and get an A and move on.”

For Hancock, he wanted to be a revolutionary but never found a way to resist.

“I wish I had done more and could say I was a major resistor,” he said. “I had good intentions, but it was like a totalitarian state, so if you said the wrong thing, you would disappear. I made up my mind to try to figure it out from inside the system, but everyday everything kept changing. I kept thinking, ‘The clouds will part and I’ll know what to do,’ but that never happened, and I didn’t act.”

Neel said he opted to stay out of the way — a decision he regrets.

“I was in the middle, which is probably the worst place to be,” he said. “I was just going along with the flow and going along with everybody else and not challenging it, but not entirely endorsing it. … I stayed too long. Some people ran out of the rally, but I was there until the bitter end.”

Out of all the students, only two actively resisted — sophomores Alyssa Hess and Sherry Tousley. On the final day, Hess stood up in class and urged her classmates not to attend the rally. Tousley resisted from the start. Tousley was one of Jones’ top students who had been banished from class early on for questioning the movement’s purpose. She anonymously launched an anti-Wave resistance group, “The Breakers.” In the documentary “Lesson Plan,” she said her father drove her to Cubberley before school hours so she could hang anti-Wave posters up high in the halls so students couldn’t tear them down. Until the making of the documentary 40 years later, not a single person — except her father — knew Tousley was the sole person behind the resistance group.

“I remember thinking, ‘Who was this resistance group that I could go find and join?'” Hancock said.” (Tousley and Hess) put themselves in considerable personal risk.”

Can it happen again?

“People often say it wouldn’t work today because there would be parent involvement, but take a look at our own national election,” Jones said.

Many of the questions those students faced 50 years ago, he said, are the same ones we are facing today:” How do we change things? Do we work within the system, or risk arrest? Do we accept civil disobedience?”

For Jones, who now spends his time in the theater and writing, the Wave represents a period in his life that he prefers not to talk about. The experiment ultimately brought an end to his teaching career in the public school system two years later when he was denied tenure despite support from hundreds of students and parents who petitioned to have him stay.

“It makes me quite pleased that this has become a catalyst for people to talk about history. That’s very rewarding, but I’m not proud of the Wave, and I don’t want to see it repeated,” said Jones, who has turned down inquiries about how to re-enact the Wave from everyone from cult leader Jim Jones to a British television company wanting to turn the experiment into a reality show.

Jones said he was particularly surprised how the students in the middle — those who weren’t the athletes, cheerleaders or part of the “in” crowd — responded to the Wave.

“Sometimes as a teacher, you miss the middle group, those who just want to be successful at something for once in life,” he said. “What was interesting during the Wave was that the very bright kids were excluded and martialed out of the classroom by guards early on. That left the middle group, who then felt empowered. That’s probably what’s happening today in the United States. People who felt left out suddenly are in control, and it feels good.

“Can it happen again? I say, ‘It’s happening.'”

The March 22 free event is full but the documentary is available on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, and other materials are posted at lessonplanmovie.com and thewavehome.com .

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24 Comments

Have you seen the latest “NEWSWEEK” they have gone all out with this Godwin’s Law hysteria. They put Hitler on the front cover, a flag of the fringe American Nazi Party on the back, and the entire issue is devoted to Trump-Hitler comparisons.

You are gravely insulting all the Americans around you who voted for him. As grandson of European Jews who were gassed, I find these comparisons incredibly disturbing.

The sensationalist media ought to be ashamed of themselves. http://www.paloaltoonline.com has lost all credibility.

EDITORS: Please drop your severely biased aenda and cover the news NEUTRALLY

PAW has lost it’s mind:

“…[C]hanged history”? “…[C]ontinues to have worldwide impact on the eve of its 50th anniversary”?

Sorry, the impact of this on history is/was/will be merely the iota that the event occurred. Otherwise, nil, zero, nada!

Here’s a more apt simulation of societal parallels to fascism, which is described in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics as socialism with a capitalist veneer ( http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html ):

The PA city council passes a comprehensive plan that refers to the history/uniqueness of PA. The plan also recognizes that property owners are links in a historical chain of ownership, and City of PA — enduring as it is and as owners are not — must guide property usage to ensure progress, harmony amongst the people and common interest, and preserve the history and uniqueness of PA.

Plausible? Yes! Would you agree?

Compare to:

“The [goverment] should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the [government]. It is his duty not to use his property against the interests of others among his own people.” Adolf Hitler (as quoted by Barkai 1990 in the reference, above)

Having studied the Holocaust and the factors leading up to it, as well as the post-war soul searching, I think people who try to deny the lessons of it and how ordinary people get swept into movements like this are the insulting ones. There are indeed many echos today. We must not be afraid to remember the past – including how ordinary people can end up complicit in such unspeakable crimes – so that we understand that it can happen again and that there was nothing hugely different about the people of Germany at that time and anyone else.

@David, As far as disdain for the country, protest is enshrined in the Constitution, the right of assembly, the right of free speach.

The real disdain here is the Rightists trying to destroy our government, so that other nations think the nation that produced the atom bomb and put men on the moon, can’t do anything right (maybe even faked the latter). Our enemies are only too happy to go along with it. Who is trying harder to destroy our government, the one we have fought wars to defend? The Rightists or the Russians? People who tell themselves they believe in Creation, but are doing everything in their power to destroy it, who say they believe in markets but are doing everything possible to put a giant thumb on the scale for the wealthy,who say they are patriots but try constantly to undermine our national standing in the world, people who claim they believe in competition, but won’t have honest discussions in which they use actual facts (as opposed to alternative ones), people who claim they are motivated by Christian values but only ever do the opposite of what is actually in the Bible so thoroughly that the public thinks Christianity is the same thing as a fascist-leaning Republican party – these are people regularly lying to themselves to remain part of a movement that isn’t fiscally responsible, isn’t really conservative in the true sense if the word, but us very much a group with an authoritarian leadership like described above.

Do you think you can equate the left of the last decades with Communist leftists? I don’t, but I do see stirrings of that in response to the Rightist quest for permanent majority/destruction of democratic control. The way to stop that is not doubling down on this road, it’s empowering the intelligent and pragmatic right that used to exist but hasn’t been seen for decades. Fiscally responsible people, like Jerry Zbrown (yes, I am making a point there – haven’t seen any actually fiscally responsible conservatives in decades. Penny-wise and pound-foolish is not the same thing.)

It is pretty clear that the initial “Wave” started at the Frankfurt School in pre-war Germany with Cultural Marxism. After WW2 it moved to the US and took hold in leftist academia and then flowered among them during the Vietnam movement. In the last 40 years, it has infiltrated and taken over large parts of the education, entertainment, media and government sectors.

Because of the development of societies with large middle classes as well as highly publicized implosions of countries that embraced socialism, the theories of economic Marxism fell out of favor. So the left employed new tactics based on identity politics to separate out grievance groups and build temporary coalitions to seize power.

Where people were uncomfortable with giving a small minority of elitist technocrats the power redistribute wealth, they were more open to the idea that maybe the intelligentsia could re-write social norms and contracts given the civil rights abuses of the past. The grand bargain was to give up freedom and control in return for social justice.

Predictably, once the progressive elites gained power they started dismantling the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers outlined in the constitution. They implemented globalism to enrich themselves and multiculturalism as a way to fragment society and make it easier to create constituencies.

They also developed a version of amplified political correctness with virtue signaling as a way to grant indulgences and penances for excepting themselves from their own dogma. It is also very handy as a distraction from the obvious hypocrisy of stealing wealth while supposedly caring for the masses.

As identity politics has been exposed for what it is (run of the mill thugocracy) and populism has risen up to counter it, the left is shifting gears again. Now we see references to fascism and totalitarianism as scare tactics to bring the populace back under control.

Wondering around the bookstore in Town Square (Books, Inc which is excellent by the way), one finds almost the first 1/3 of the retail space dedicated to topics about surviving Trump and fighting back.

Ironically, it is populated with many of the conservative anthems like 1984, Animal Farm, the road to serfdom and the origins of totalitarianism. I am just not sure if they are intended as therapy, self help or blueprints for the next “Wave.”

Whoosh! You’re a perfect example.

Political correctness is the new form of Nazism. If a person does not comply, then he or she is ostracized, insulted, demonized and marginalized as being ignorant, stupid, irrelevant or deplorable. Any opposition or challenge to PC is to be quashed, ridiculed and silenced. Disdain and peaceful protests are a right for American citizens, but violence and destruction of property are not. Can anyone deny that the hiring system in California schools and universities is not discriminatory by giving preference to candidates with a leftist point of view? No, Trump didn’t win because Americans want to control the public debate or discussion. Trump won because many Americans are tired of both parties showing disregard for all things American and misusing taxpayer money.

I was a student at Gunn when this Third Wave experiment took place, and my cousin was in Ron Jones’ class. My cousin was very traumatized by it, and contrary to the article’s claims, there was a great deal of discussion going on at the time about this “experiment.” A few years later I was at Stanford during Zimbardo’s famous prison experiment, which he himself had to shut down because of similar loss of boundaries and increasing hostility to “the prisoners,” and a complete willingness to follow the head guard, Zimbardo himself. It is a very good thing to think about the Germans and Hitler at this time, whether or not comparisons can be made specifically. Take a look at what has happened in this country. The millions who followed Trump and still support him even after a disastrous few months display an inability to see the reality of who Trump really is. People always said that “ It could never happen here, “ and I do believe “it” will not be the same, thanks to the incredible resistance going on to the cruel policies the Republicans are trying to enact, the disastrous climate denial, the international fiascos happening daily, and the huge rise in hate crimes. As a Jew who lost 26 family members in Auschwitz, I thank the PAW for running this story!

@kimmy please provide 3 specific examples of “disastrous” things Trump has done. Then let’s discuss.

Moderator, why was my post removed? I asked for a commenter to give an explanation for their statement. Absolutely nothing against terms.

Please explain

The Wave that changed the world started at UC Berkeley.

All the Gunn student did was act as ignorant parrots!

” Ironically, it is populated with many of the conservative anthems like 1984, Animal Farm, the road to serfdom and the origins of totalitarianism.”

Conservative anthems? Orwell? Well I suppose they could be used as blueprints for right-wing totalitarian regimes, so we are fortunate that Mr. Trump does not read literature. However, The Donald has Bannon, Sessions, Conway, and the Wall Street Swamp at his right hand, so he is definitely not being counseled in the ways of democracy.

Trump will be re-elected in 2020. If “the resistance” wants to win, they really need to shut their mouths, halt all the activism, and move away from politics and instead be productive and find ways to contribute to the economy.

Many, many amongst us support Trump. We would love to express this but we can’t. The Trump-haters are so vocal and they assume that anti-Trump feelings are unanimous — this assumption of unanimous anti-Trump sentiment is powered by the mainstream media and propagated all across social media — it is a massive trend that gains steam and grows exponentially.

However, it does not cause any Trump voters, whether they are diehard or reluctant, to change their minds. We simply remain silent. We cornered, bullied. We have to hide our support for Trump — or else. We can only express ourselves anonymously on forums such as these… and in the voting booth, with the curtain drawn.

You were utterly shocked on Nov. 8th, 2016… you will be utterly shocked again.

Well-said, @resident. Spoken like a true bully: “everyone who disagrees with me should shut their mouths and stop their activism.”

If you truly believed that these actions were going to help the Republican party, and you’re a Trump supporter as you say, wouldn’t you want leftists and liberals to keep it up?

Seems much more likely to me that you’re scared that your guy lost the popular vote, has only gotten more unpopular since his election, and won’t be able to deliver his vast promises to being back jobs for people.

PAW, it must be labor intensive sitting on these boards, censoring, making sure alternative views don’t get posted. Just more and more fuel for Trump supporters.

My post was explicitly anti-Trump.

He lost the popular vote, is massively unpopular nationwide, and the only thing he’s done is funnel money to himself and his cronies.

So the moderators delete posts of all viewpoints.

@resident, “Many, many amongst us support Trump. We would love to express this but we can’t. “

I think you will find that if you adopt these key practices, you will find you can express youself. I love having discussions with all people: Be willing to stick with facts Be willing to question ultra-rightwing radio and media and use more impartial sources like science and bipartisan organizations Be willing to consider what the views of the other person actually are, and be willing to have an open mind Don’t just parrot rightwing party talking points. Don’t assume the other person is a straw man liberal (don’t assume what the other oerson’s virpewpoints are, then argue against those assumptions – I find it’s impossible to have a rational discussion with so many rightists because they more often than not, don’t seem to be arguing with me or indeed any real person, just their false talk-radio-induced ideas about liberals. Don’t shut down and quit just because the other person is making more sense and chalkenging things you want to believe, son’t get angry just because someone disagrees with you. I am happy to debate head to head with anyone who wants to be rational. It’s hard to find that on the right these days. Don’t assume the person on the other side doesn’t want to espouse fascally conservative ideas – just realize, they are almost certainly thinking about the Republican party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, and not what we have today which is in many ways unrecognizable from the previous.

Many, many of us are Christians who believe in what Jesus taught in the Bible, and feel we must mostly hide it or people incorrectly think we are political rightwing ideologues and assume we hold a host of rigid political views that we don’t have and are actually antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Even though a recent Pew Research study found that only one segment of Christianity, most (but not all) white evangelical churches are large majority republican, but they found a lot of denominations majority democratic, the overt push by rightwing politicians to co-opt the most authoritarian side of the church and claim it represents Christianity, attaching the extreme and often dishonest, anti-common person political views to Christianity, has made it difficult to be open as a Christian lest people close themselves off. I recognize that people aren’t aganst the views of Jesus when they learn them (like, you cannot serve both God and money, either you will love the one and despise the other…), but against hateful and ireation, often antithetical to the actual Biblical views, and it’s impossible to have those discussions if people assume we are the rigid idelogues most rightwingers come across as in dialog. I would much rather people know me, and be open to knowing I am aChristian once they do. You could try that fir a change, too.

Thank you for the lecture. I am sure Trump supporters will take your suggestions under advisement when they are denied employment and educational opportunities, assaulted at rallies, have their property vandalized and shouted down at free speech areas.

Once they correct all of their deficiencies in character and wrong thinking then we can all have an open dialogue.

@bully, my point was that a clearly liberal media continues to censor information. Regardless which side, the fact they feel they need to control what we say and/or see is exactly what Trump and his supporters are rallying on.

@TrueEquivalencies I for the most part agree with @resident and would say to you this:

I think you will find that if you adopt these key practices, you will find concervatices can express themselves. We love having discussions with all people: Be willing to stick with facts Be willing to question ultra-left wing radio and media and use more impartial sources like science and bipartisan organizations Be willing to consider what the views of the other person actually are, and be willing to have an open mind Don’t just parrot left wing party talking points. Don’t assume the other person is a straw man conservative (don’t assume what the other oerson’s virpewpoints are, then argue against those assumptions – I find it’s impossible to have a rational discussion with so many leftists because they more often than not, don’t seem to be arguing with me or indeed any real person, just their false talk-radio-induced ideas about conservatives. Don’t shut down and quit just because the other person is making more sense and chalkenging things you want to believe, son’t get angry just because someone disagrees with you. I am happy to debate head to head with anyone who wants to be rational. It’s hard to find that on the left these days. Don’t assume the person on the other side doesn’t want to espouse fascally liberal ideas – just realize, they are almost certainly thinking about the Democratic party of Roosevelt and not what we have today which is in many ways unrecognizable from the previous.

I’m not going to get into the Christian aspect as that’s a whole seperate list and discussion and I frankly don’t have time.

What @resident was trying to say and what the left continually ignores and cannot seem to understand is that this area is such an incredible bubble and people insist theirs is the only view. I am in no way comfortable speaking my views in even my social circle, for fear of being denigrated and/or labeled a fascist, misogynistic, racist etc.

It’s sad. Really sad.

It’s interesting that the right, who have spent decades decrying victimhood, now latch on to it when they are being challenged for their lies…

^^^ except I was a Democrat and a huge Obama supporter before Trump came along. I am not a pure conservative.

I stopped believing in Obama after the ACA and the Iran deal.

From the day Trump announced, CNN and the rest of the entrenched, monolithic mainstream media covered him in a way that was oddly skewed. The blinders came off. The more Trump was mocked and viciously attacked, the stronger my support for him grew as it became obvious that CNN, etc. were dishonest and their sinister agenda exposed especially when they blew the “Access Hollywood” thing severely out of proportion. That was when my support for Trump went into overdrive. They jugded him so innacurately and so hatefully, a massive gang up on one man who simply wanted to bring COMMON SENSE and sound fiscal policy into government. So it became personal. When they attack Trump, they attack me. I am not a fan of judgemental people.

How can you attribute it to liberals when they remove posts from both sides? I know “the media” is a conservative boogeyman, but you’re not really providing any evidence of your assertions.

Let’s analyze your fear of being called racist or misogynistic. Think about someone who you think is racist or misogynistic. Do you believe they look at their own beliefs and say “Yes, that is racist”? Almost certainly not. Instead, it’s been shown that people are quite bad at evaluating their own beliefs. Perhaps you should trust your social circle’s evaluation of your beliefs.

“Although many may attempt to associate Trump with Hitler,…”

No informed commenter would do that. Hitler was much smarter and more focused than Trump. And he was never elected to any public office.

“Many, many amongst us support Trump. We would love to express this but we can’t.”

No problem. The Donald says it all for–and about–you.

I was a Democrat until I felt unsafe speaking my mind. I’m trying to figure out how to write this post so that I won’t immediately be written off and a bigoted person who should be dismissed. Here it goes… I used to be seen as a “good” person. When the LGBT fight was for “civil” unions I was good. When the fight was for “accepting transgender’s decision to dress how they want” I was wonderfully accepting. But that changed overnight when I didn’t think it was reasonable to completely re-define marriage by getting rid of “bride” and “groom”. When I refused to acquiesce that a man can become a woman as a “personal” decision I was told I didn’t know the science and didn’t understand the facts (therefore stupid and to be ignored). When I thought it is child abuse to medically stop puberty for a child because they thought they were transgender (rather than explaining that sex is biologically determined and you can express dress however you want) I really started be see as a hateful person that doesn’t care about the well being of children. My point is, I was demonized or dismissed because I didn’t go along with the prescribed program like a “good person”. I’m no different than I have always been! Society changed.

The leftist progressives need to do a self-evaluation and become aware of the tactics they are using. As a current dissenter against the left’s new “social norms” I think the lessons of the Wave Experiment are alive and well. The tactics are being used through the media, the politicians, and the organized political groups. Their first tactic is to yell “fascist, homophobe, xenophobe, transphobe, and racist” to anyone who dares disagree. If you don’t shut up they will deliberately try to get you fired and ruin your reputation (look up Dr. Jordan Peterson). If that doesn’t work then they will promote and enact violence (i.e. punch a Trump supporter and shut down conservative speakers). How quickly can things really go off the rail? What about what happened during the Arab Spring? Maybe it really doesn’t take much to make the leap into the unthinkable?

So, I hope everyone wakes up and comes back to the middle before either the extreme left or the extreme right take us down into a living hell.

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The Third Wave Experiment and a Lesson from History

Why did so many ordinary German people allow the Nazi takeover of the 1930s, and the atrocities that followed, to happen? This is a question that countless history teachers have been asked over the years, and there are no easy answers.

In 1967 one young American teacher attempted to show, rather than tell his students. His unique teaching experiment, now known as the “Third Wave Experiment,” morphed into a gripping societal commentary that is still studied to this day. It showed with terrifying clarity how any nation, however civilized, can quickly fall to fascist ideology . It took his school less than five days.

Day One: Let’s Play A Game

How do you teach the young and impressionable about the insidious dangers of fascism? This is the question 25-year-old history teacher Ron Jones found himself asking in 1967.

He had been teaching his students at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California about the evils of the Holocaust when a student asked him a question, he found himself struggling to answer: How could so many normal Germans have allowed so much evil to happen?

Jones was lost for words, so he decided to carry out an experiment with his class. He was already known as the school’s “cool” teacher, respected for his unusual teaching style. What started out as a game quickly evolved into something very different.

The experiment began with slight changes to Jones’s usual laid-back style of classroom management. He started the lesson by walking in and writing “Strength Through Discipline” on the classroom chalkboard. He then introduced the new classroom rules.

Students must sit upright throughout the class. When asking or answering a question they had to stand up and speak in sentences of three words or less. Whenever they spoke to him, they had to use the preface Mr. Jones each time.

At this point, Jones only planned on making the experiment a one-day thing to show his students how easy it is to indoctrinate strict discipline. Even he was surprised by how quickly his students responded to his new rules.

Day Two: All Hail Mr. Jones

On day two Jones was shocked to find his students were still following the rules from the day before. As he walked into his classroom, they all stood and chanted “Good Morning Mr. Jones” in unison. Seeing an opportunity, the unorthodox teacher decided to expand his experiment.

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He went to the board and added, “Strength Through Community.” It was then that he told his students the name of his new movement and the meaning behind it. It was called “The Third Wave” and took its name from surfer culture : surfers always choose to ride the third wave, which is the strongest.

He then taught his students a special salute, a cupped hand raised next to the head with a bent elbow, that they could use to spot other members of his movement. They were told that they had to use the salute whenever they saw each other, including when out of school .

Jones then kicked things up a notch. Each student was given a special assignment, whether it be designing a banner for the movement, stopping non-members from entering his class, or recruiting their friends to join the Third Wave.

He also handed out index cards to his students which acted as proof of membership. Anyone who received a card with a red X on it was to become an informant, tasked with reporting anyone who acted against the Third Wave’s values. Jones referred to these loyalists as his Gestapo.

When one student, Sherry Tousley, challenged her teacher, asking why they couldn’t say what they thought, she was banished to the library . From this point onwards all students who questioned Jones were sent there.

After speaking to the school librarian, who had grown up in Nazi Germany, Tousley and the other outcasts set up a countermovement, “The Breakers.” That night they posted anti-Third Wave posters all over the school. By the beginning of class, the next day they had all been torn down.

Day Three and Four: The Movement Spreads

On the third day, students from across the school began to join in. Jones added “Strength Through Action” to his board and told students to step up their recruitment drive, instructing them on how to indoctrinate others.

By the end of the day, Jones had 200 participants under his command. He was surprised by how seriously his students were taking rule breaking. Students who had been best friends for years were now reporting each other for the slightest infractions and fights began to break out in the corridors. Jones began holding mock trials in class based on testimonies from his student Gestapo.

By day four Jones realized that things were getting out of hand. Firstly, he recognized that his newfound power was starting to go to his head. He was enjoying having 100+ students saluting him in the hallways a little bit too much for his own liking. He later described the power as intoxicating.

It was on this day Jones decided to end his experiment. On his classroom board, he wrote, “Strength Through Pride.” He then explained to his followers that his experiment had been a ruse. The Third Wave was real. It was a national movement to save the country from the feckless Republicans and Democrats who couldn’t agree with each other.

The problem, he told them, was that democracy was inherently weak. It idealized the individual, whereas the Third Wave idealized the community. His naive students gobbled it up.

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He told them that on Friday a new Third Wave Presidential candidate was going to be announced at a special event for Third Wave members. His students were ordered to attend at noon. The event was to be televised with over 1000 participating schools taking part. His final order was that only New Wave members be allowed to attend.

Day Five: The Lesson          

On the fifth day, Jones’s converts all arrived at 11.50 a.m. sharp. He had convinced some of his friends to attend the “event” posing as reporters. His students gladly demonstrated for the cameras all that they had gleefully become in the minutes leading up to the broadcast .

Jones marched his 200+ students into the sports hall chanting “Strength through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!”. He stood at the front of the hall, proclaimed “Let us show everybody the extent of your training,” switched on the TV, and left.

His students waited for several minutes while nothing but an empty channel crackled on the screen. Students have described the atmosphere as being like that of a pressure cooker. As nothing came on the screen some students panicked and fled the hall as the sense of unease became unbearable.

After a few minutes, Jones returned, apologized, and told his students it had all been an elaborate experiment to teach them about the dangers of fascism. He had shown them they were not better or worse than the Germans who had gone along with Nazism. He then played them all a film about the rise of the Nazi regime .

Jones’s little experiment didn’t just touch the lives of his students. It has been turned into a feature film, a theater piece, a Netflix miniseries, and has had two documentaries made about it. His case study is still used in some schools to teach about the dangers of totalitarianism and the ease with which civilized society can crumble into fascism.

This isn’t to say his experiment wasn’t controversial. Jones has received fair criticism for his treatment of his students and the trauma it caused some of them. While Jones has authored books on his experiment it has also damaged his career. When he came up for tenure two years after the experiment, he was denied.

Today the lesson Jones’s experiment teaches is perhaps more important than ever. Fascism is once again on the rise and recent events have shown how easy it is to indoctrinate the masses. The need to belong, the pleasure we take in membership, and our instinctual subservience to rules and discipline are all part of human nature. The Third Wave Experiment shows that modern democracy is no more immune to these shortcomings than it was in the past.

Top Image: Ron Jones, the teacher who invented the Third Wave experiment, was shocked at how quickly the ideology became entrenched and at how much he enjoyed the position of power. Source: Ruslan Batiuk / Adobe Stock.

By Robbie Mitchell

Coontz. L. 2022. DID A HISTORY TEACHER’S ‘THIRD WAVE’ NAZI SOCIAL EXPERIMENT GO TOO FAR? Coffee Or Die. Available here: https://coffeeordie.com/third-wave-social-experiment

Aron. N. 2017. This 1967 classroom experiment proved how easy it was for Americans to become Nazis . Medium. Available here: https://timeline.com/this-1967-classroom-experiment-proved-how-easy-it-was-for-americans-to-become-nazis-ab63cedaf7dd

Strasser. T. 1981. The Wave . New York: Dell Publishing Co.

Jones. R. 1976. The Third Wave Story . The Wave Home. Available here: https://www.thewavehome.com/1976_the-third-wave_story/

Robbie Mitchell

I’m a graduate of History and Literature from The University of Manchester in England and a total history geek. Since a young age, I’ve been obsessed with history. The weirder the better. I spend my days working as a freelance writer researching the weird and wonderful. I firmly believe that history should be both fun and accessible. Read More

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An experiment in an American High School where students learn how easy it is to be seduced by the same social forces which led to the horrors of Nazi Germany. Based on a true story. An experiment in an American High School where students learn how easy it is to be seduced by the same social forces which led to the horrors of Nazi Germany. Based on a true story. An experiment in an American High School where students learn how easy it is to be seduced by the same social forces which led to the horrors of Nazi Germany. Based on a true story.

• Alexander Grasshoff
• Johnny Dawkins
• Bruce Davison
• Lori Lethin
• 42 User reviews
• 2 Critic reviews
• 3 wins & 2 nominations total

Top cast 17

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• (as Wesley Ann Pfenning)

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Based on the real experience of the 10th-grade Cubberley High School history class taught by Ron Jones in Palo Alto, California, in March/April 1967.

Ben Ross : Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action!

• Connections Edited into ABC Afterschool Specials: The Wave (1983)

User reviews 42

Frightening study in psychology.

• Nov 11, 1999
• October 4, 1981 (United States)
• United States
• TAT Communications Company
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 46 minutes

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The third wave, 1967: an account - Ron Jones

Schoolteacher Ron Jones's personal account of his experiment which created a proto-fascist movement amongst his high school pupils in Palo Alto, California, which in 2008 was subject of the award-winning film The Wave.

For years I kept a strange secret. I shared this silence with two hundred students. Yesterday I ran into one of those students. For a brief moment it all rushed back.

Steve Conigio had been a sophomore student in my World History class. We ran into each other quite by accident. It's one of those occasions experienced by teachers when they least expect. You're walking down the street, eating at a secluded restaurant, or buying some underwear when all of a sudden an ex-student pops up to say hello. In this case it was Steve running down the street shouting "Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones." In an embarrassed hug we greet. I had to stop for a minute to remember. Who is this young man hugging me? He calls me Mr. Jones. Must be a former student. What's his name? In the split second of my race back in time Steve sensed my questioning and backed up. Then smiled, and slowly raised a hand in a cupped position. My God He's a member of the Third Wave. It's Steve, Steve Conigio. He sat in the second row. He was a sensitive and bright student. Played guitar and enjoyed drama.

We just stood there exchanging smiles when without a conscious command I raised my hand in curved position. The salute was give. Two comrades had met long after the war. The Third Wave was still alive. "Mr. Jones do you remember the Third Wave?" I sure do, it was one of the most frightening events I ever experienced In the classroom. It was also the genesis of a secret that I and two hundred students would sadly share for the rest of our lives.

We talked and laughed about the Third Wave for the next few hours. Then it was time to part. It's strange, you most a past student In these chance ways, You catch a few moments of your life. Hold them tight. Then say goodbye. Not knowing when and if you'd ever see each other again. Oh, you make promises to call each other but It won't happen. Steve will continue to grow and change. I will remain an ageless benchmark in his life. A presence that will not change. I am Mr. Jones. Steve turns and gives a quiet salute. Hand raised upward in a shape of a curling wave. Hand curved in a similar fashion I return the gesture.

The Third Wave. Well at last it can be talked about. Here I’ve met a student and we've talked for hours about this nightmare. The secret must finally be waning. It's taken three years. I can tell you and anyone else about the Third Wave. It's now just a dream, something to remember, no it's something we tried to forget. That's how it all started. By strange coincidence I think it was Steve who started the Third Ways with a question

. We were studying Nazi Germany and in the middle of a lecture I was interrupted by the question. How could the German populace claim ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people. How could the townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, claim they knew nothing about concentration camps and human carnage. How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say they weren't there when it happened. it was a good question. I didn't know the answer.

In as such as there were several months still to go in the school year and I was already at World War II, I decided to take a week and explore the question.

Strength through discipline On Monday, I introduced my sophomore history students to one of the experiences that characterized Nazi Germany. Discipline. I lectured about the beauty of discipline. How an athlete feels having worked hard and regularly to be successful at a sport. How a ballet dancer or painter works hard to perfect a movement. The dedicated patience of a scientist in pursuit of an Idea. it's discipline. That self training. Control. The power of the will. The exchange of physical hardships for superior mental and physical facilities. The ultimate triumph.

To experience the power of discipline, I invited, no I commanded the class to exercise and use a new seating posture; I described how proper sitting posture assists mandatory concentration and strengthens the will. in fact I instructed the class in a sitting posture. This posture started with feet flat on the floor, hands placed flat across the small of the back to force a straight alignment of the spine. "There can't you breath more easily? You're more alert. Don't you feel better."

We practiced this new attention position over and over. I walked up and down the aisles of seated students pointing out small flaws, making improvements. Proper seating became the most important aspect of learning. I would dismiss the class allowing them to leave their desks and then call them abruptly back to an attention sitting position. In speed drills the class learned to move from standing position to attention sitting in fifteen seconds. In focus drills I concentrated attention on the feet being parallel and flat, ankles locked, knees bent at ninety degree angles, hands flat and crossed against the back, spine straight, chin down, head forward. We did noise drills in which talking was allowed only to be shown as a detraction. Following minutes of progressive drill assignments the class could move from standing positions outside the room to attention sitting positions at their desks without making a sound. The maneuver took five seconds.

It was strange how quickly the students took to this uniform code of behavior I began to wonder just how far they could be pushed. Was this display of obedience a momentary game we were all playing, or was it something else. Was the desire for discipline and uniformity a natural need? A societal instinct we hide within our franchise restaurants and T.V. programming.

I decided to push the tolerance of the class for regimented action. In the final twenty-five minutes of the class I introduced some new rules. Students must be sitting in class at the attention position before the late bell; all students Must carry pencils and paper for note taking; when asking or answering questions a student must stand at the side of their desk; the first word given in answering or asking a question is "Mr. Jones." We practiced short "silent reading" sessions. Students who responded in a sluggish manner were reprimanded and in every case made to repeat their behavior until it was a model of punctuality and respect. The intensity of the response became more important than the content. To accentuate this, I requested answers to be given in three words or less. Students were rewarded for making an effort at answering or asking questions. They were also acknowledged for doing this in a crisp and attentive manner. Soon everyone in the class began popping up with answers and questions. The involvement level in the class moved from the few who always dominated discussions to the entire class. Even stranger was the gradual improvement in the quality of answers. Everyone seemed to be listening more intently. New people were speaking. Answers *tarted to stretch out as students usually hesitant to speak found support for their effort.

As for my part in this exercise, I had nothing but questions. Why hadn't I thought of this technique before. Students seemed intent on the assignment and displayed Accurate recitation of facts and concepts. They even seemed to be asking better questions and treating each other with more compassion. How could this be? Here I was enacting an authoritarian learning environment and it seemed very productive. I now began to ponder not just how far this class could be pushed but how such I would change my basic beliefs toward an open classroom and self directed learning. Was all my belief in Carl Rogers to shrivel and die? Where was this experiment leading?

Strength through community On Tuesday, the second day of the exercise, I entered the classroom to find everyone sitting in silence at the attention position. Some of their faces were relaxed with smiles that come from pleasing the teacher. But most of the students looked straight ahead in earnest concentration. Neck muscles rigid. No sign of a smile or a thought or even a question. Every fibre strained to perform the deed. To release the tension I went to the chalk board and wrote in big letters "STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE." Below this I wrote a second law, "STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY."

While the class sat in stern silence I began to talk lecture sermonize about the value of community. At this stage of the game I was debating in my own mind whether to stop the experiment or continue. I hadn't planned such intensity or compliance. In fact I was surprised to find the ideas on discipline enacted at all. While debating whether to stop or go on with the experiment I talked on and on about community. I made up stories from my experiences as an athlete, coach and historian. It was easy. Community is that bond between individuals who work and struggle together. It's raising a barn with your neighbors, it's feeling that you are a part of something beyond yourself, a movement, a team, La Raza, a cause.

It was too late to step back. I now can appreciate why the astronomer turns relentlessly to the telescope. I was probing deeper and deeper into my own perceptions and the motivations for group and individual action. There was much more to see and try to understand. Many questions haunted me. Why did the students accept the authority I was imposing? Where is their curiosity or resistance to this marshal behavior. When and how will this end?

Following my description of community I once again told the class that community like discipline must be experienced if it is to be understood. To provide an encounter with community I had the class recite in unison "Strength Through Discipline." "Strength Through Community." First I would have two students stand and call back our motto. Then add two more until finally the whole class was standing and reciting. It was fun. The students began to look at each other and sense the power of belonging. Everyone was capable and equal. They were doing something together. We worked on this simple act for the entire class period. We would repeat the mottos in a rotating chorus. or say then with various degrees of loudness. Always we said them together, emphasizing the proper way to sit, stand, and talk.

I began to think of myself as a part of the experiment. I enjoyed the unified action demonstrated by the students. It was rewarding to see their satisfaction and excitement to do more. I found it harder and harder to extract myself from the momentum and identity that the class was developing. I was following the group dictate as much as I was directing it.

As the class period was ending and without forethought I created a class salute. It was for class members only. To make the salute you brought your right hand up toward the right shoulder in a curled position. I called it the Third Wave salute because the hand resembled a wave about to top over. The idea for the three came from beach lore that waves travel in chains, the third wave being the last and largest of each series. Since we had a salute I made it a rule to salute all class members outside the classroom. When the bell sounded ending the period I asked the class for complete silence. With everyone sitting at attention I slowly raised my arm and with a cupped hand I saluted. It was a silent signal of recognition. They were something special. Without command the entire group of students returned the salute.

Throughout the next few days students in the class would exchange this greeting. You would be walking down the hall when all of a sudden three classmates would turn your way each flashing a quick salute. In the library or in gym students would be seen giving this strange hand jive. You would hear a crash of cafeteria food only to have it followed by two classmates saluting each other. The mystique of thirty individuals doing this strange gyration soon brought more attention to the class and its experiment into the German personality. Many students outside the class asked if they could join.

Strength through action On Wednesday, I decided to issue membership cards to every student that wanted to continue what I now called the experiment. Not a single student elected to leave the room. In this the third day of activity there were forty-three students in the class. Thirteen students had cut class to be a part of the experiment. While the class sat at attention I gave each person a card. I marked three of the cards with a red X and informed the recipients that they had a special assignment to report any students not complying to class rules. I then proceeded to talk about the meaning of action. I explained how discipline and community were meaningless without action. I discussed the beauty of taking full responsibility for ones action. Of believing so thoroughly in yourself and your community or family that you will do anything to preserve, protect and extend that being. I stressed how hard work and allegiance to each Other would allow accelerated learning and accomplishment. I reminded students of what it felt like being in classes where competition caused pain and degradation. Situations in which students were pitted against each other In everything from gym to reading. The feeling of never acting, never being a part of something, never supporting each other.

At this point students stood without prompting and began to give what amounted to testimonials. "Mr. Jones, for the first time I'm learning lots of things." "Mr. Jones, why don't you teach like this all the time." I was shocked! Yes, I had been pushing information at them in an extremely controlled setting but the fact that they found it comfortable and acceptable was startling. It was equally disconcerting to realize that complex and time consuming written homework assignments on German life were being completed and even enlarged on by students. Performance in academic skill areas was significantly improving. They were learning more. And they seemed to want more. I began to think that the students might do anything I assigned. I decided to find out.

To allow students the experience of direct action I gave each individual a specific verbal assignment. "It's your task to design a Third Wave Banner. You are responsible for stopping any student that is not a Third Wave member from entering this room. I want you to remember and be able to recite by tomorrow the name and address of every Third Wave Member. You are assigned the problem of training and convincing at least twenty children in the adjacent elementary school that our sitting posture is necessary for better learning. It's your job to read this pamphlet and report its entire content to the class before the period ends. I want each of you to give me the name and address of one reliable friend that you think might want to join the Third Wave."...

To conclude the session on direct action, I instructed students in a simple procedure for initiating new members. It went like this. A new member had only to be recommended by an existing member and issued a card by me. Upon receiving this card the new member had to demonstrate knowledge of our rules and pledge obedience to them. My announcement unleashed a fervor.

The school was alive with conjecture and curiosity. It affected everyone. The school cook asked what a Third Wave cookie looked like. I said chocolate chip of course. Our principal came into an afternoon faculty meeting and gave me the Third Wave salute. I saluted back. The Librarian thanked me for the 30' banner on learning which she placed above the library entrance. By the end of the day over two hundred students were admitted into the order. I felt very alone and a little scared.

Most of my fear emanated from the incidence of "tattletaling". Though I formally appointed only three students to report deviate behavior, approximately twenty students came to me with reports about how Allan didn't salute, or Georgine was talking critically about our experiment. This incidence of monitoring meant that half the class now considered it their duty to observe and report on members of their class. Within this avalanche of reporting one legitimate conspiracy did seem underway ....

Three women in the class had told their parents all about our classroom activities. These three young women were by far the most intelligent students in the class. As friends they chummed together. They possessed a silent confidence and took pleasure in a school setting that gave them academic and leadership opportunity. During the days of the experiment I was curious how they would respond to the equalitarian and physical reshaping of the class. The rewards they were accustomed to winning just didn't exist in the experiment. The intellectual skills of questioning and reasoning were non existent. In the martial atmosphere of the class they seemed stunned and pensive. Now that I look back, they appeared much like the child with so called learning disability. They watched the activities and participated in a mechanical fashion. Whereas others jumped in, they held back, watching.

In telling their parents of the experiment they set up a brief chain of events. The rabbi for one of the parents called me at home. He was polite and condescending. I told him we were merely studying the German personality. He seemed delighted and told me not to worry. He would talk to the parents and calm their concern. In concluding this conversation I envisioned similar conversations throughout history in which the clergy accepted and apologized for untenable conditions. If only he would have raged in anger or simply investigated the situation I could point the students to an example of righteous rebellion. But no. The rabbi became a part of the experiment In remaining ignorant of the oppression in the experiment he became an accomplice and advocate.

By the end of the third day I was exhausted. I was tearing apart. The balance between role playing and directed behavior became indistinguishable. Many of the students were completely into being Third Wave Members. They demanded strict obedience of the rules from other students and bullied those that took the experiment lightly. Others simply sunk into the activity and took self assigned roles. I particularly remember Robert. Robert was big for his age and displayed very few academic skills. Oh he tried harder than anyone I know to be successful. He handed in elaborate weekly reports copied word for word from the reference books in the library. Robert is like so many kids in school that don't excel or cause trouble. They aren't bright, they can't make the athletic teams, and don't strike out for attention. They are lost. invisible. The only reason I came to know Robert at all is that I found him eating lunch in my classroom. He always ate lunch alone.

Well, the Third Wave gave Robert a place in school. At least he was equal to everyone. He could do something. Take part. Be meaningful. That's just what Robert did. Late Wednesday afternoon I found Robert following me and asked what in the world was he doing. He smiled (I don't think I had ever seen him smile) and announced, "Mr. Jones I'm your bodyguard. I'm afraid something will happen to you.

Can I do it Kr. Jones, please?" Given that assurance and smile I couldn't say no. I had a bodyguard. All day long he opened and closed doors for me. He walked always on my right. Just smiling and saluting other class members. He followed me every- where. In the faculty room (closed to students) he stood at silent attention while I gulped some coffee. When accosted by an English teacher for being a student in the "teachers' room" her just smiled and informed the faculty member that he wasn't a student. he was a body guard.

Strength through pride On Thursday I began to draw the experiment to a conclusion. I was exhausted and worried. Many students were over the line. The Third Wave had become the center of their existence. I was in pretty bad shape myself. I was now acting instinctively as a dictator. Oh I was benevolent. And I daily argued to myself on the benefits of the learning experience. By this, the fourth day of the experiment I was beginning to lose my own arguments. As I spent more time playing the role I had less time to remember its rational origins and purpose. I found myself sliding into the role even when it wasn't necessary. I wondered if this doesn't happen to lots of people. We get or take an ascribed role and then bend our life to fit the image. Soon the image is the only identity people will accept. So we become the image. The trouble with the situation and role I had created was that I didn't have time to think where it was leading. Events were crushing around me. I worried for students doing things they would regret. I worried for myself.

Once again I faced the thoughts of closing the experiment or letting it go its own course. Both options were unworkable. If I stopped the experiment a great number of students would be left hanging. They had committed themselves in front of their peers to radical behavior. Emotionally and psychologically they had exposed themselves. If I suddenly jolted them back to classroom reality I would face a confused student- body for the remainder of the year. It would be too painful and demeaning for Robert and the students like him to be twisted back into a seat and told it's just a game. They would take the ridicule from the brighter students that participated in a measured and cautious way. I couldn't let the Roberts lose again.

The other option of just letting the experiment run its course was also out of the question. Things were already getting out of control. Wednesday evening someone had broken into the room and ransacked the place. (I later found out it was the father of one of the students. He was a retired air force colonel who had spent time in a German prisoner of war camp. Upon hearing of our activity he simply lost control Late in the evening he broke into the room and tore it apart. I found him that morning propped up against the classroom door. He told me about his friends that had been killed in Germany. He was holding on to me and shaking. In staccato words he pleaded that I understand and help him get home. I called his wife and with the help of a neighbor walked him home. We spent hours later talking about what he felt and did, but from that moment on Thursday morning I was more concerned with what might be happening at school.

I was increasingly worried about how our activity was affecting the faculty and other students in the school. The Third Wave was disrupting normal learning. Students were cutting class to participate and the school counselors were beginning to question every student in the class. The real gestapo in the school was at work. Faced with this experiment exploding in one hundred directions, I decided to try an old basketball strategy. When you're playing against all the odds the best action to take is to try the unexpected. That's what I did.

By Thursday the class had swollen in size to over eighty students. The only thing that allowed them all to fit was the enforced discipline of sitting in silence at attention. A strange calm is in effect when a room full of people sit in quite observation and anticipation. It helped me approach them in a deliberate way. I talked about pride. "Pride is more than banners or salutes. Pride Is something no one can take from you. Pride is knowing you are the best... It can't be destroyed ..."

In the midst of this crescendo I abruptly changed and lowered my voice to announce the real reason for the Third Wave. In slow methodic tone I explained what was behind the Third Wave. "The Third Wave isn't just an experiment or classroom activity. It's far more important than that. The Third Wave Is a nationwide program to find students who are willing to fight for political change in this country. That's right. This activity we have been doing has been practice for the real thing. Across the country teachers like myself have been recruiting and training a youth brigade capable of showing the nation a better society through discipline, community. pride, and action. If we can change the way that school is run, we can change the way that factories, stores, universities and all the other institutions are run. You are a selected group of young people chosen to help in this cause. If you will stand up and display what You have learned in the past four days...we can change the destiny of this nation. We can bring it a new sense of order. community, pride and action. A new purpose. Everything rests with you and your willingness to take a stand."

To give validity to the seriousness of my words I turned to the three women in the class whom I knew had questioned the Third Wave. I demanded that they leave the room. I explained why I acted and then assigned four guards to escort the women to the library and to restrain them from entering the class an Friday. Then in dramatic style I informed the class of a special noon rally to take place on Friday. This would be a rally for Third Wave Members only.

It was a wild gamble. I just kept talking. Afraid that if I stopped someone would laugh or ask a question and the grand scheme would dissolve in chaos. I explained how at noon on Friday a national candidate for president would announce the formation of a Third Wave Youth Program. Simultaneous to this announcement over 1000 youth groups from every part of the country would stand up and display their support for such a movement. I confided that they were the students selected to represent their area. I also questioned if they could make a good showing, because the press had been invited to record the event. No one laughed. There was not a murmur of resistance. quite the contrary. A fever pitch of excitement swelled across the room. "We can do it!" "Should we wear white shirts?" "Can we bring friends?" "Mr. Jones, have you seen this advertisement in Time magazine?"

The clincher came quite by accident. It was a full page color advertisement in the current issue of Time for some lumber products. The advertiser identified his product as the Third Wave. The advertisement proclaimed in big red, white and blue letters, "The Third Wave is coming." ''Is this part of the campaign, Mr. Jones?" "Is it a code or something?" "Yes.1' "Now listen carefully."

"It's all set for tomorrow. Be in the small auditorium ten minutes before 12:00. Be seated. Be ready to display the discipline, community, and pride you have learned. Don't talk to anyone about this. This rally is for members only."

Strength through understanding On Friday, the final day of the exercise, I spent the early morning preparing the auditorium for the rally. At eleven thirty students began to ant their way into the room; at first a few scouting the way and then more. Row after row began to fill. A hushed silence shrouded the room. Third Wave banners hung like clouds over the assembly. At twelve o'clock sharp I closed the room and placed guards at each door. Several friends of mine posing as reporters and photographers began to interact with the crowd taking pictures and jotting frantic descriptive notes. A group photograph was taken. Over two hundred students were crammed into the room. Not a vacant seat could be found. The group seemed to be composed of students from many persuasions. There were the athletes, the social prominents, the student leaders, the loners, the group of kids that always left school early, the bikers, the pseudo hip, a few representatives of the school's dadaist click, and some of the students that hung out at the laundromat. The entire collection however looked like one force as they sat in perfect attention. Every person focusing on the T.V. set I had in the front of the room. No one moved. The room was empty of sound. It was like we were all witness to a birth. The tension and anticipation was beyond belief.

"Before turning on the national press conference, which begins in five minutes, I want to demonstrate to the press the extent of our training." With that, I gave the salute followed automatically by two hundred arms stabbing a reply. I then said the words "Strength Through Discipline" followed by a repetitive chorus. We did this again, and again. Each time the response was louder. The photographers were circling the ritual snapping pictures but by now they were ignored. I reiterated the importance of this event and asked once more for a show of allegiance. It was the last time I would ask anyone to recite. The room rocked with a guttural cry, "Strength Through Discipline."

It was 12:05. I turned off the lights in the room and walked quickly to the television set. The air in the room seemed to be drying up. It felt hard to breathe and even harder to talk. It was as if the climax of shouting souls had pushed everything out of' the room. I switched the television set on. I was now standing next to the television directly facing the room full of people. The machine came to life producing a luminous field of phosphorus light. Robert was at my side. I whispered to him to watch closely and pay attention to the next few minutes. The only light in the room was coming from the television and it played against the faces in the room. Eyes strained and pulled at the light but the pattern didn't change. The room stayed deadly still. Waiting. There was a mental tug of war between the people in the room and the television. The television won. The white glow of the test pattern didn't snap into the vision of a political candidate. It just whined on. Still the viewers persisted. There must be a program. It must be coming on. Where is it? The trance with the television continued for what seemed like hours. It was 12:07. Nothing. A blank field of white. It's not going to happen. Anticipation turned to anxiety and then to frustration. Someone stood up and shouted.

"There isn't any leader is there?" "Everyone turned in shock. first to the despondent student and then back to the television. Their faces held looks of disbelief.

In the confusion of the moment I moved slowly toward the television. I turned it off. I felt air rush back into the room. The room remained in fixed silence but for the first time I could sense people breathing. Students were withdrawing their arms from behind their chairs. I expected a flood of questions, but instead got intense quietness. I began to talk. Every word seemed to be taken and absorbed.

"Listen closely, I have something important to tell you." "Sit down." "There is no leader! There is no such thing as a national youth movement called the Third Wave. You have been used. Manipulated. Shoved by your own desires into the place you now find yourself. You are no better or worse than the German Nazis we have been studying."

"You thought that you were the elect. That you were better than those outside this room. You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline and superiority. You chose to accept that group's will and the big lie over your own conviction. Oh, you think to yourself that you were just going along for the fun. That you could extricate yourself at any moment. But where were you heading? How far would you have gone? Let me show you your future."

With that I switched on a rear screen projector. It quickly illuminated a white drop cloth hanging behind the television. Large numbers appeared in a countdown. The roar of the Nuremberg Rally blasted into vision. My heart was pounding. In ghostly images the history of the Third Reich paraded into the room. The discipline. The march of super race. The big lie. Arrogance, violence, terror. People being pushed into vans. The visual stench of death camps. Faces without eyes. The trials. The plea of ignorance. I was only doing my job. My job. As abruptly as it started the film froze to a halt on a single written frame. "Everyone must accept the blame No one can claim that they didn't in some way take part."

The room stayed dark as the final footage of film flapped against the projector. I felt sick to my stomach. The room sweat and smelt like a locker room. No one moved. It was as if everyone wanted to dissect the moment, figure out what had happened. Like awakening from a dream and deep sleep, the entire room of people took one last look back into their consciousness. I waited for several minutes to let everyone catch up. Finally questions began to emerge. All of the questions probed at imaginary situations and sought to discover the meaning of this event.

In the still darkened room I began the explanation. I confessed my feeling of sickness and remorse. I told the assembly that a full explanation would take quite a while. But to start. I sensed myself moving from an introspective participant in the event toward the role of teacher. It's easier being a teacher. In objective terms I began to describe the past events.

"Through the experience of the past week we have all tasted what it was like to live and act in Nazi Germany. We learned what it felt like to create a disciplined social environment. To build a special society. Pledge allegiance to that society. Replace reason with rules. Yes, we would all have made good Germans. We would have put on the uniform. Turned our head as friends and neighbors were cursed and then persecuted. Pulled the locks shut. Worked in the "defense" plants. Burned ideas. Yes, we know in a small way what it feels like to find a hero. To grab quick solution. Feel strong and in control of destiny. We know the fear of being left out. The pleasure of doing something right and being rewarded. To be number one. To be right. Taken to an extreme we have seen and perhaps felt what these actions will lead to. we each have witnessed something over the past week. We have seen that fascism is not just something those other people did. No. it's right here. In this room. In our own personal habits and way of life. Scratch the surface and it appears. Something in all of us. We carry it like a disease. The belief that human beings are basically evil and therefore unable to act well toward each other. A belief that demands a strong leader and discipline to preserve social order. And there is something else. The act of apology.

"This is the final lesson to be experienced. This last lesson is perhaps the one of greatest importance. This lesson was the question that started our plunge in studying Nazi life. Do you remember the question? It concerned a bewilderment at the German populace claiming ignorance and non-involvement in the Nazi movement. If I remember the question. it went something like this. How could the German soldier, teacher, railroad conductor, nurse. tax collector. the average citizen, claim at the end of the Third Reich that they knew nothing of what was going on. How can a people be a part of something and then claim at the demise that they were not really involved' What causes people to blank out their own history? In the next few minutes and perhaps years, you will have an opportunity to answer this question."

"If our enactment of the Fascist mentality is complete not one of you will ever admit to being at this final Third Wave rally. Like the Germans, you will have trouble admitting to yourself that you come this far. You will not allow your friends and parents to know that you were willing to give up individual freedom and power for the dictates of order and unseen leaders. You can't admit to being manipulated. Being a follower. To accepting the Third Wave as a way of life. You won't admit to participating in this madness. You will keep this day and this rally a secret. It's a secret I shall share with you."

I took the film from the three cameras in the room and pulled the celluloid into the exposing light. The deed was concluded. The trial was over. The Third Wave had ended. I glanced over my shoulder. Robert was crying. Students slowly rose from their Chairs and without words filed into the outdoor light. I walked over to Robert and threw my arms around him. Robert was sobbing. Taking in large uncontrollable gulps of air. "It's over." it's all right." In our consoling each other we became a rock in the stream of exiting students. Some swirled back to momentarily hold Robert and me. Others cried openly and then brushed away tears to carry on. Human beings circling and holding each other. Moving toward the door and the world outside.

For a week in the middle of a school year we had shared fully in life. And as predicted we also shared a deep secret. In the four years I taught at Cubberley High School no one ever admitted to attending the Third Wave Rally. Oh, we talked and studied our actions intently. But the rally itself. No. It was something we all wanted to forget.

Ron Jones (1972)

Attachments

• United States

O my Gosh, I thought this

O my Gosh, I thought this story was amazing. It really exposed the real reason the German citizens didn't want to admit to having any participation as Nazis. Mr. Jones used his own students to test out his theory, that the desire for order and discipline was the key to manipulating a body of people to act a certain way. The feeling being correct was more desired than being free. He was correct. His students where attached to the order. The feeling of being "in" or part of something so great and orderly. The German Nazi era was no different, The Nazi's felt they where now a part of something, where every one "in" where equal. Very interesting experiment. And profound revelation.

Take this story with a

Take this story with a considerable grain of salt. Ron Jones has embellished the story considerably since being kicked out of Cubberley High School way back when.

I feel entirely compelled to

I feel entirely compelled to say that any one that takes this as an offensive measure is possibly hiding something them self. I read every word of information as a student of life and learning the root of human need for belonging. I have participated in similar experiments and also discovered the innate being inside is so easily manipulated due to a childlike want for approval and purpose being just the way they are. Powerful. Embellished or not, this information is in-valuable and clearly possible. If Ron Jones was in fact terminated from the school, it is clearly because humanity is afraid to let go and see what is possible.

MUST READ!!!

It's a bit of both isn't it?

It's a bit of both isn't it? Outright organised fascism is capitalism gone over the top, but manipulation of group dynamics happens all over the place - particularly in schools - and is the means used to get people to behave in required ways, absurd ways often but sometimes ways that are practically credible on the surface. If capitalism were the only problem and class struggle the simple solution we'd already have a global movement...

It shows why the people were

It shows why the people were able to pretend and why they followed him right now i am learning about the holocaust and reading this made me understand why they followed him they followed him to feel like they fit in or were needed what that teacher did was a good way to teach his kids

I am having a hard time

I am having a hard time believing this. I think its a great, although disturbing, story but I guess what I'm having trouble with is the timeline. He will explain all the things that he was able to manipulate the kids into doing which seems like would've taken weeks or months and claim it only took one day. I don't know maybe he just imbelished a little or something. I'm very upset over Robert!

Ron is making a living out of

Ron is making a living out of lying about what happened at Cubberley. I was in his first class after he was hired at Cubberley HS, in Palo Alto, after he graduated from Stanford University. Our class was called Tech Prep(senior class) and it had only 13 boys in the class. It was one of the most interesting classes I have ever had. We knew that it was interesting learning about different political systems, but not something we would ever emulate. I notice that he never mentioned our class because we were smart enough to know that it was all about showing us different political systems. However, Ron tried to think that he could transfer that type of instruction to a mixed class of girls and boys who were not prepared for his style of instruction. I graduated in 1967 and lost contact with Ron, But my mother worked at the school and kept me up to date as to what was going on with him. He was fired for his outrageous behavior. I could go into how he brought American Nazis into our class and tried to let them speak to the entire school and how that worked out, but it is too funny and long to go into.Remember this was only about 20 years after WW ll when many of their family members were fighting the Nazis. Talk about tone deaf.

Hey Felton, many thanks for

Hey Felton, many thanks for your comments!

So are you saying that what Ron says happened in the other class didn't really happen? Or he is exaggerating, or what?

Ron tried to show his

Ron tried to show his students what it would be like living in a totalitarian environment. It caused a lot of problems at the school because students were not prepared properly to understand what was being taught. His role playing spilled out of the class into all of the school. Our class came up with the motto the "the third wave" and the salute, but it stayed in our class and was not carried out into the school. Ron's problem is he let it get out of control and that is why he was fired.

Dear felton335-- I agree with

Dear felton335--

I agree with you that Ron's pedagogical experiment was disastrous and that he did not make enough pedagogical preparation for his simulation of the Nazi totalitarianism with his students. In my view and pedagogical experience, a good pedagogical simulation should involve a sense of ambivalence between real and artificial that promotes an inquiry and reflection among the students. From Ron's description it is clear to me that his students (many? all?) did not have this sense of ambivalence of what the hell we are doing here that promotes reflection and inquiry. He ended his pedagogical experiment abruptly with humiliation of his students via his lecturing. Based on his account, he did not question his students' experiences and reflections by careful listening to them and providing them with sensitive guidance.

I have a question for you. You said that Ron was lying. What was he lying about, in your view? I found one inaccuracy in his account based on what you wrote. He said that he invented the term "The Third Wave" and the salute for it. However, you wrote, "Our class came up with the motto the "the third wave" and the salute..." What else was inaccurate in Ron's account?

Thanks, Eugene PS I'd LOVE to hear voices of his former students in general and from his class that he described in specific. What does he do now (or after he was fired)?

Good story as it goes, but

Good story as it goes, but could really have benefited from some analysis of the school as an ideological context in which this kind of behaviour is particularly prone to manifest, what with public education already being a system that favours obedience, conformity, and subservience.

Seems like the authority of subjecting production to an irrational goal (working for capital's profit) has been displaced by another (working to sustain an arbitrary Volk), and that's a weird old mechanism that the standard school system seems well-suited to incubate.

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The Wave: A film of how a teacher carried out an experiment in fascism with his class