[9] The students proceeded to conduct trials for those thought to be not loyal enough to the movement, with punishment consisting of banishment to the school library. Lesson Plan: Directed by David Jeffery, Philip Carr Neel. 509-10) told his students in the . 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. They included . Some former students explain that their parents at the time didnt talk about emotions, and taught their children to respect the government and authorities, but that the Third Wave Experiment gave them a different point of view on blindly following orders and authoritiesthey appreciated the fact that they had been given the opportunity to see through their naivety. The salute was give. To grab quick solution. Emotionally and psychologically they had exposed themselves. The third wave, 1967: an account - Ron Jones. Row after row began to fill. We were studying Nazi Germany and in the middle of a lecture I was interrupted by the question. In the split second of my race back in time Steve sensed my questioning and backed up. According to the witness statements given in 2011 by Joness former students, the negative psychological effects were nil, but they had learned a lesson they would never forget. Where is their curiosity or resistance to this marshal behavior. The only thing that allowed them all to fit was the enforced discipline of sitting in silence at attention. That you were better than those outside this room. The Third Wave experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California during the first week of April in 1967. It's easier being a teacher. [9] Jones instructed three students to report to him when other members of the movement failed to abide by the rules. 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. The room remained in fixed silence but for the first time I could sense people breathing. The experiments revealed the degree to which a person's own opinions are influenced by those of a group . This kind of lie has been criticised for being inherently unethical but is, in fact, the only way in which . Be in the small auditorium ten minutes before 12:00. "Mr. Jones, for the first time I'm learning lots of things." Do you remember the question? Now that I look back, they appeared much like the child with so called learning disability. To provide an encounter with community I had the class recite in unison "Strength Through Discipline." Every person focusing on the T.V. At this stage of the game I was debating in my own mind whether to stop the experiment or continue. The events were adapted into a non-musical play stage in 2011 by Joseph Robinette and Ron Jones. 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. It would not be possible to analyse such experiments without comparing them alongside one another since it takes a comparative study to come up with trustworthy explanations in the social sciences. This kind of lie has been criticised for being inherently unethical but is, in fact, the only way in which experimenters can ensure that their subjects are acting in an authentic way. [9] Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and told his students that the movement aimed to eliminate democracy. The trouble with the situation and role I had created was that I didn't have time to think where it was leading. How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say they weren't there when it happened. 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. It's a bit of both isn't it? Jones was himself alarmed by how far his students took the movement to heart and how they orchestrated a group of guardians and SS style spies to worm out the traitors to the movement. It just whined on. I then proceeded to talk about the meaning of action. . The Third Wave was still alive. I was now acting instinctively as a dictator. Be seated. Strength through community I was now standing next to the television directly facing the room full of people. 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. You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline and superiority. I felt very alone and a little scared. The Third Wave had ended. I confessed my feeling of sickness and remorse. He handed in elaborate weekly reports copied word for word from the reference books in the library. What was he lying about, in your view? I felt air rush back into the room. I was only doing my job. On Monday, I introduced my sophomore history students to one of the experiences that characterized Nazi Germany. According to a former student, Jones did a double take. It was for class members only. It was rewarding to see their satisfaction and excitement to do more. Strength through pride Evil becomes banalised by human beings, but it is not in itself banal. They possessed a silent confidence and took pleasure in a school setting that gave them academic and leadership opportunity. The Third Wave experiment once again indicates that the normal group processes that make social life possible also can lead people to conform to standardsin this case fascismthat most of us would reject. The student was, in fact, an actor behind a screen in a different room, who would plead and let out cries of pain as the fictional volts increased. I told the assembly that a full explanation would take quite a while. All of the questions probed at imaginary situations and sought to discover the meaning of this event. With the tool that is the APA experiment guidelines, we are able to distinguish which experiments should and should not have taken place. Returning again to the experiment conducted at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto 1967, we can start to use the newer analyses provided to reassess it. While debating whether to stop or go on with the experiment I talked on and on about community. Now the students do their homework to be able to answer Ben Ross questions. To be right. He sat in the second row. Here I was enacting an authoritarian learning environment and it seemed very productive. Played guitar and enjoyed drama. He said that he invented the term "The Third Wave" and the salute for it. This exercise in fascism took place in Palo Alto, California. The high school was and still is one of the best in the state, well known for its progressive philosophy and intelligent students. For example, the theory that appeared after the Milgram experiment was that ordinary, good people, professionals and students alike would obey authority to the point that it could kill someone (up to 450V of electrical currentfar beyond that which can be sustained by a human being). The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, during the first week of April 1967. I took the film from the three cameras in the room and pulled the celluloid into the exposing light. I expected a flood of questions, but instead got intense quietness. New people were speaking. It was like we were all witness to a birth. 1981 Todd Strasser (Morton Rhue) Novelization "The Wave". 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. In fact I was surprised to find the ideas on discipline enacted at all. The autobiography of Albert Parsons, Haymarket martyr, written from prison. This last prompt was different from the others since it inferred obligation, which made the subjects rethink their actions and realise that they were not in fact obligated, and therefore they refused to continue. The television won. If I remember the question. 1976 Ron Jones First Short Story "The Third Wave". I had to stop for a minute to remember. Conclusions made by contemporary political scientists and sociologists reflect the experiences of the subjects of the Third Wave Experiment and make connections between those experiences and witness statements in history. "Can we bring friends?" Most of my fear emanated from the incidence of "tattletaling". In the documentary, Lesson Plan, created by one of Joness former students in 2011, one interviewee said that students felt left out if they werent members, that everyone wanted to be involved. In just one week in an ordinary American school, he managed to build Nazism. It was as if everyone wanted to dissect the moment, figure out what had happened. Instead of simply summarising Haslams theory, however, its necessary to study his newer formulation of old conclusions to analyse a different, lesser-known social experiment called The Third Wave Experiment. The next day, the students assembled in a lecture room at midday. Yesterday I ran into one of those students. Jones, please?" Jones intended only a one-day experiment.[9]. The real gestapo in the school was at work. Hold them tight. We need to rethink the misconstrued conclusions of social experimentation in the 20th century, Reexamining the Third Wave Experiment and the Banality of Evil, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Transphobic Social-Media Vigilantes Endanger the Black Community, Free-Speech and Hypocrisy: How JK Rowling Silences Her Critics. The group seemed to be composed of students from many persuasions. After the studies of Drs Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher, the common conclusions have been ditched, and Hannah Arendts words have been reanalysed to provide a new conclusion to the causes and nature of tyranny and evil. And they seemed to want more. The subjects were told that they were taking part in a rare experiment studying education. I called it the Third Wave salute because the hand resembled a wave about to top over. Must be a former student. The same can often be said in the natural sciences. I read every word of information as a student of life and learning the root of human need for belonging. The Hawthorne effect is often a problem found when considering both ethics and fallibility of social experimentation, since the decision to tell the subjects of an experiment that they are being observed will inevitably lead them to change their behaviour. He would talk to the parents and calm their concern. People being pushed into vans. Oh he tried harder than anyone I know to be successful. They aren't bright, they can't make the athletic teams, and don't strike out for attention. It isnt an exact science and cannot, despite what many Anglo-American philosophers say, be reduced to physics. 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 said the words "Strength Through Discipline" followed by a repetitive chorus. The advertisement proclaimed in big red, white and blue letters, "The Third Wave is coming." "Listen closely, I have something important to tell you." In her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), Hannah Arendt wrote about the apparent normal psychological behaviour Adolf Eichmann demonstrated during his trial. 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. he was a body guard. Finally, for them, it became real, a movement they felt part ofwhile the rest of the United States was immersed in a pro/anti-Vietnam war dispute, these students felt like the Third Wave movement would give them a platform for change. Others cried openly and then brushed away tears to carry on. That you could extricate yourself at any moment. Pride Is something no one can take from you. The Milgram experiment was a famous and controversial study that explored the effects of authority on obedience. "There isn't any leader is there?" Without command the entire group of students returned the salute. 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. Even stranger was the gradual improvement in the quality of answers. 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. Take part. Take this story with a considerable grain of salt. ", "You thought that you were the elect. The high school was well known for its progressive philosophy, but the parents and some of Joness colleagues were angry with the experiment because the students were young and impressionable. By the end of the third day I was exhausted. By the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants. I didn't know the answer. Burned ideas. It was as if the climax of shouting souls had pushed everything out of' the room. The Nazis also hid many of their crimes from their own people, named themselves national socialists (when they were, in fact, not socialist but fascist) and managed to abolish unemployment (food was nevertheless lacking across the country, much like in Stalins Ukraine). This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 16:27. 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. Set in 1967 in Palo Alto, California, during the Vietnam war, racial integration and social revolution, the play centers around a young, popular teacher, Ron Jones, and his world history class. From Ron's description it is clear to me that his students (many? Taking in large uncontrollable gulps of air. Rather than a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with an empty channel. Over the course of five days (or nine, according to student Sherry Toulsey), Jones, a member of the SDS,[6] Cubberley United Student Movement sponsor[7] and Black Panthers supporter[8] conducted a series of exercises in his classroom emphasizing discipline and community, intended to model certain characteristics of the Nazi movement. 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. . "Mr. Jones, why don't you teach like this all the time." How could the townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, claim they knew nothing about concentration camps and human carnage. 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. I demanded that they leave the room. It's taken three years. During the days of the experiment I was curious how they would respond to the equalitarian and physical reshaping of the class. Strength through understanding Replace reason with rules. When the bell sounded ending the period I asked the class for complete silence. 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. Ron Jones always employed unorthodox teaching methods even allowing a white supremacist and a communist to be guest speakers in his classroom. Steve Conigio had been a sophomore student in my World History class. Jones named the movement "The Third Wave" as a symbol of strength, referring to the mythical belief that the third in a series of waves is the strongest. You're more alert. The air in the room seemed to be drying up. Several friends of mine posing as reporters and photographers began to interact with the crowd taking pictures and jotting frantic descriptive notes. Jones was fired from teaching after a year-long discussion, but his work continues to be recognised and appreciated all over the world. They are lost. Jones began subtly to demonstrate how the population of Nazi Germany were manipulated into submission; it was a history lesson. Upon receiving this card the new member had to demonstrate knowledge of our rules and pledge obedience to them. 1967 Original "Third Wave" Class, Palo Alto, California. The ultimate triumph. How could this be? 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