The day fascism ruled a Palo Alto classroom - In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher Ron Jones looks back

[Kadie]

The day fascism ruled a Palo Alto classroom
In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher Ron Jones looks back
Sam Whiting, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, January 30, 2010

For a minute there, charismatic high school teacher Ron Jones had everyone, including himself, convinced that he was a power lord leading what he called the Third Wave. It was only a classroom experiment that lasted five days. But it went maybe too far, with the salutes and bodyguards and all, and ended up costing Jones his job and his future as a high school teacher.

What he got in return - during the 43 years since the experiment - was a magazine article that became a TV drama that was novelized by another writer and became an international best-seller. A documentary, "Lesson Plan: The Story of the Third Wave," is entering the film festival circuit in April.

snip...
Simulation was in vogue for introducing abstract ideas. One of the abstractions was fascism in World War II, and Jones decided to simulate it by turning his world history classroom into a one-day fascist state. It was a morning class of 25 or 26 sophomores, and Jones introduced discipline by having them practice marching into class in an orderly fashion and sitting at their desks with perfect posture and smiles.

Jones figured that was the end of it, but when he came in the second morning, they were all sitting with perfect posture again. They liked this game, and that is where the trouble began.

By the end of day two, participating students had developed a secret hallway salute, which caused enough campus curiosity that by day three there were 200 students or more, including kids who had heard about it at rival high schools Palo Alto and Gunn, jamming his classroom to be part of the Third Wave.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/30/DDM51BLIU1.DTL#ixzz0e7Bam9To

[OrwellwasRight]

1. I remember watching that as an after school special --

I thought the story was fascinating!! Thanks for posting this.

[Kadie]

3. I don't recall hearing this story before.

It was very interesting.

:hi:

[Robb]

4. I believe I saw the same after-school special.

Thanks again to the OP.

[Gregorian]

2. My high school.

It was a great place. And a great time. There were many exceptional teachers. I never even heard of this until now.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Dang, I've never seen so many deleted comments at sfgate.

Usually they let a lot of trash just sit there.

What an amazing teacher this guy was. This and the Stanford Prison Experiment are two of the most important things I've ever read about.

[Hannah Bell]

7. similar experiments: blue eyes/brown eyes (grade school teacher divides class by eye color,

giving one group special privileges, in the civil rights era:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html


milgram experiments: research subjects ordered to administer serious shocks to other subjects by authority figure: will they obey?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[Danger Mouse]

8. Learning about Milgram was such an eye-opener for me. Terrifying.

Worse than the stanford experiment, IMHO...since the people in Milgram were being made (or at least so they thought) to kill.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Thank you Hannah.

I had seen those two as well. I think the first two were also remarkable for the way they got out of the hands of the creators and took on a life of their own. Zimbardo's accounts of reveling in the environment he'd produced in his "prison" before being brought down to earth by a colleague who gave him a reality check was particularly chilling. He'd gotten sorry carried away he couldn't stay objective. The other teacher in the high school had to put the experiment to a stop when it took on dimensions beyond his intentions. It doesn't take much for conformity to take on its own momentum.

[Ardent15]

6. I remember watching that movie. Amazing. nt

[proteus_lives]

9. It's always right around the corner.

Sad fact of the human race.

[TexasObserver]

10. Recommend

[niyad]

12. can't rec, but will kick. I remember seeing that movie, and being horrified at how quickly the

students fell into the mindset. and I remember the end, where he calls them all in to "meet your leader" and reveals a picture of hitler, and the students were horrified.

I didn't realize the teacher was fired for this.