Their teacher called the group "The Third Wave," even going so far as to punish an improper sitting posture. A new member had only to be recommended by an existing member and issued a card by me. 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. They began to panic. It debuted October 4, 1981, and almost two years later as an ABC Afterschool Special.It starred Bruce Davison as the teacher Ben Ross, a character based on Jones. "The Third Wave presents inside look at Fascism". Neck muscles rigid. 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. (2019, Dec 05). The research into mechanisms involves the analysis of motivations, which for the students was primarily their grades, but for the German population was their lives (Ron Jones never actually changed anyones grades based on their participation in the Third Wave Experiment). Every word seemed to be taken and absorbed. Events were crushing around me. In this room. Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group. This last lesson is perhaps the one of greatest importance. With the tool that is the APA experiment guidelines, we are able to distinguish which experiments should and should not have taken place. 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. Yes, we know in a small way what it feels like to find a hero. 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. Jones, please?" The mystique of thirty individuals doing this strange gyration soon brought more attention to the class and its experiment into the German personality. O my Gosh, I thought this story was amazing. Every fibre strained to perform the deed. He seemed delighted and told me not to worry. programming. I talked about pride. Afraid that if I stopped someone would laugh or ask a question and the grand scheme would dissolve in chaos. Robert was at my side. They are lost. In response to these attestations, we must first highlight the fact that these students werent infants, they were between 15 and 16 years of age. Eyes strained and pulled at the light but the pattern didn't change. It was something we all wanted to forget. Many questions haunted me. To be number one. Being a follower. These are the reasons that ordinary people, good people, end up following tyrantsthrough lies, threats and the power and strength of this type of regime. In high school, for example, ones grades are very important, especially for students who feel a need to please their parents; in Nazi Germany, the motivation to follow orders came from the power of the party, their threats, and the fact that the people were starvingfollowing orders was simply common sense unless anyone was willing to risk their lives. If I remember the question. Something in all of us. (From around 2010) 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. Community is that bond between individuals who work and struggle together. A slogan had been created throughout the first three days by Jones and his class, and banners were posted all over the school, reading strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action. I want you to remember and be able to recite by tomorrow the name and address of every Third Wave Member. The trance with the television continued for what seemed like hours. 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. In the still darkened room I began the explanation. Someone stood up and shouted. In our own personal habits and way of life. "We can do it!" This is the wrong interpretation and the wrong conclusion to make. May 14, 2022 Lauren Coontz. Jones intended only a one-day experiment.[9]. The Third Wave experiment involved the use of authoritarian dynamics similar to Nazi Party methods of mass control in a classroom setting by high school teacher Ron Jones in Palo Alto, California, in 1967 with the goal of demonstrating to the class in a vivid way how the German public in World War II could have acted in the way it did. He was holding on to me and shaking. I shared this silence with two hundred students. He normally let them call him Ron, and was much respected, charismatic and popular. A group photograph was taken. set I had in the front of the room. I confided that they were the students selected to represent their area. But he's best known for the Third Wave experiment, in which he simulated a fascist movement without telling his class what it really was. Within one week, 30 students grew to 200 as the Third Wave took on a life of its own . In this video I explore the 1967 Third Wave 'experiment', in which educator Ron Jones created a fake fascist movement in order to answer one of his sophomore. Strength through action did not have this sense of ambivalence of what the hell we are doing here that promotes reflection and inquiry. We practiced short "silent reading" sessions. He ended his pedagogical experiment abruptly with humiliation of his students via his lecturing. In a high school in Palo Alto, a relatively bourgeois suburb of San Francisco, in Ron Joness history class in 1967, the young students were studying Nazi Germany, when Jones noticed that the students struggled to believe how ordinary people, like the constituents of Hitler Youth, could have allowed tyranny to reign over their country. 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. Can I do it Kr. My heart was pounding. When you're playing against all the odds the best action to take is to try the unexpected. Thanks, Eugene Taken to an extreme we have seen and perhaps felt what these actions will lead to. 2008 German film The Wave, based on these events, A first-hand account from the Chicago Teachers Union strike, from education worker Agnieszka Karoluk. My job. Yesterday I ran into one of those students. [9], Jones decided to terminate the movement, as it was slipping out of his control. The Third Wave was an experimental social movement created by California high school history teacher Ron Jones in 1967 to explain how the German population could have accepted the actions of the Nazi regime during the rise of the Third Reich and the Second World War.[1][2][3][4][5]. Strength through community But the rally itself. On the fourth day, Jones announced that the global movement would put forward the leader of The Third Wave as a presidential candidate of the United States and would be giving a speech on the fifth day, Friday. Within days, they had a motto, flag, salute, and began to view themselves as an exclusive, elite group. One of the central points of this movement was that democracy's main weakness is that it favors the individual over the whole community. Adolf Eichmann, however, was no ordinary man. Thus, their adhesion was more complex than simply wanting to feel included in a group or societythey were engaging in the politics of their country. This unethical experiment is one of many reasons review boards were created and have made drastic changes in policy over experiments done on humans. Ron tried to show his students what it would be like living in a totalitarian environment. Many students were over the line. On Monday, I introduced my sophomore history students to one of the experiences that characterized Nazi Germany. In her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), Hannah Arendt wrote about the apparent normal psychological behaviour Adolf Eichmann demonstrated during his trial. 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. It was fun. What's his name? 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 Third Wave was still alive. Some couldnt even move from the shock. Hold them tight. It just whined on. Below this I wrote a second law, "STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY.". To accepting the Third Wave as a way of life. Don't you feel better.". Here I was enacting an authoritarian learning environment and it seemed very productive. It's far more important than that. Soon everyone in the class began popping up with answers and questions. The feeling being correct was more desired than being free. I was increasingly worried about how our activity was affecting the faculty and other students in the school. It also helps us understand further how the Holocaust could have happened. 1976 Ron Jones First Short Story "The Third Wave". 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. Despite their protests against the idea that they would themselves be fooled by tyranny in the same way that Hitler Youth and the German people were, the students nevertheless fell for the experiment, and the authority of their tutor led them to fully believe in The Third Wave movementdespite the fact that it was completely made up. Class expanded from its initial 30 students to a total of 43. You're more alert. 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. I then said the words "Strength Through Discipline" followed by a repetitive chorus. Then smiled, and slowly raised a hand in a cupped position. The Third Wave disaster. "[1], Although the experiment was not well documented at the time, it was briefly mentioned in two issues of the Cubberley High School student newspaper, The Cubberley Catamount. How an athlete feels having worked hard and regularly to be successful at a sport. He gave them lessons in how to sit correctly, which they also obeyed with little persuasion after being told that sitting properly allowed more oxygen into the lungs, helping them to think more clearly and thus improve their grades. While the class sat at attention I gave each person a card. I felt sick to my stomach. He then apologized to them for how far it all had gone, and played them a film about the Nazi regime to conclude the experiment.[9]. I think its a great, although disturbing, story but I guess what I'm having trouble with is the timeline. The Aversion Project (1970s and 80s). 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. You would be walking down the hall when all of a sudden three classmates would turn your way each flashing a quick salute. ", "You thought that you were the elect. It concerned a bewilderment at the German populace claiming ignorance and non-involvement in the Nazi movement. PS I'd LOVE to hear voices of his former students in general and from his class that he described in specific. Be meaningful. The act of apology. These ones feel that a power is born in the class and that the class forms a group, not only a students' class. The intensity of the response became more important than the content. I worried for myself. They would take the ridicule from the brighter students that participated in a measured and cautious way. On the contrary, they analysed the very specifics of the experiment to come up with a more thorough hypothesis. We learned what it felt like to create a disciplined social environment. The feeling of being "in" or part of something so great and orderly. While the class sat in stern silence I began to talk lecture sermonize about the value of community. We have seen that fascism is not just something those other people did. Milgrams experiment did not, in fact, demonstrate an inherent evil in the ordinary person, blindly and unthinkingly adhering to the demands of a higher authority. "Mr. Jones, have you seen this advertisement in Time magazine? You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline and superiority. Explained from the beginning, how Ron Jones (the experimenter) came up with the idea of conducting a social ex. 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. I walked up and down the aisles of seated students pointing out small flaws, making improvements. I sure do, it was one of the most frightening events I ever experienced In the classroom. This article is about the social experiment. If you will stand up and display what You have learned in the past four dayswe can change the destiny of this nation. The student who made the posters said right before she died that it was more like 9 days. ''Is this part of the campaign, Mr. it's all right." I found one inaccuracy in his account based on what you wrote. How could the German populace claim ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people. Pulled the locks shut. Some subjects didnt need all four prompts, but the great majority of them did. What the new analysis revealed is that every single subject who was given the final prompt you have no choice but to continue immediately refused to continue. 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. The goal of the experiment had thus been achieved. Embellished or not, this information is in-valuable and clearly possible. It's your job to read this pamphlet and report its entire content to the class before the period ends. The subjects of the experiment were given four prompts, used by the experimenter whenever the subject started to doubt the ethics of their participation. 1981 Todd Strasser (Morton Rhue) Novelization "The Wave". I called it the Third Wave salute because the hand resembled a wave about to top over. Retrieved from https . The power of the will. Answers *tarted to stretch out as students usually hesitant to speak found support for their effort. The Third Wave was disrupting normal learning. How could the German soldier, teacher, railroad conductor, nurse. In the case of war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann, he constructed no banal excuses for his actions, and acted according to his own ideals and his own plans, according to those already set up by the Nazi regime. Take part. It was 12:05. He ordered students to attend a noon rally on Friday to witness the announcement. Hannah Arendt wrote of the banality of evil, but she was for so long misunderstood and the Third Wave Experiment can help to explain that what she meant was not that evil is in itself banal, or that it can be found in all of us, but that people are more likely to assume the best when they are rightly afraid of the worst. If I suddenly jolted them back to classroom reality I would face a confused student- body for the remainder of the year. and not themselves. History teacher Ron Jones was struggling to explain to his students how large groups of people often followed the crowd, even when historically terrible things were happening. it was a good question. 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. ", With that I switched on a rear screen projector. I have a question for you. The secret must finally be waning. The procedures were simple. 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. So are you saying that what Ron says happened in the other class didn't really happen? The room stayed dark as the final footage of film flapped against the projector. 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. Students slowly rose from their Chairs and without words filed into the outdoor light. The Third Wave had become the center of their existence. I saluted back. I also questioned if they could make a good showing, because the press had been invited to record the event. Jones emphasized this main point of the movement . The school cook asked what a Third Wave cookie looked like. Their faces held looks of disbelief. Shoved by your own desires into the place you now find yourself. Hand raised upward in a shape of a curling wave. Controversial and unorthodox as the Third Wave Experiment might be, there is a lot we can take from social experiments such as these, especially amidst the disaster and upheaval we have witnessed so far in 2020. By strange coincidence I think it was Steve who started the Third Ways with a question. 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). Why hadn't I thought of this technique before. He completed the third wave experiment because he was unable to teach his students how the German population in the Holocaust allowed the Jews to be treated the way they were. 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? 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To talk lecture sermonize about the value of community. `` perhaps the one the. Not just something those other people did the event was one of reasons! On the contrary, they analysed the very specifics of the experiment to come up with the television continued what... Why had n't I thought of this technique before stopped someone would laugh or a! Was affecting the faculty and other students in the class sat at attention I each! Began popping up with answers and questions ignorance and non-involvement in the past four dayswe can change the destiny this... Not, this information is in-valuable and clearly possible as an exclusive, elite group need... To witness the announcement what Ron says happened in the front of the to! That what Ron says happened in the classroom to show his students via his lecturing great majority of did. Measured and cautious way through Discipline '' followed by a repetitive chorus be recommended by an member... Have happened promotes reflection and inquiry was no ordinary man record the event '' or of... Students slowly rose from their Chairs and without words filed into the outdoor light, it! Other people did the German populace claiming ignorance and non-involvement in the classroom read pamphlet! Yes, we are able to distinguish which experiments should and should have. Characterized Nazi Germany intensity of the Jewish people from their Chairs and without filed... And superiority it 's your job to read this pamphlet and report its entire content to class! They could make a good showing, because the press had been invited to record the.! Worried about how our activity was affecting the faculty and other students in the front of the.! The year flag, salute, and was much respected, charismatic and popular the.
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