The Wave is a fictional account of an experiment called TheThird Wave which took place in 1967 at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. As part of a study on Nazi Germany history teacher Ron Jones created an experimental demonstration of fascist movement with sophomore high school students attending his Contemporary History class. Jones, unable to explain to his students why the German citizens allowed the Nazi Party to exterminate millions of Jews and other so-called "undesirables", decided to show them instead. Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and convinced his students that the movement is to eliminate democracy. The fact that democracy emphasizes individuality was considered as a drawback of democracy, and Jones emphasized this main point of the movement in its motto: "Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action, strength through pride".
The experiment itself was not well documented but became famous with the publication of this novel.
After reading the novel post a response considering the following questions:
Do you think an "experiment" similiar to the wave could work at our school, explain why or why not?
Do you consider a "simulation" such as the wave, undertaken in the name of education, to be unethical? Explain your answer.
Do you think this "experiment" taught the students about the evils of fascism or reinforced the prejudices that were already present?
2 comments:
This book was awesome; I couldn't put it down!
I definetly don't think that our school could pull this off because everyone there are so many different types of people at PGSS and I don't think anyone would really unite. It might get a few kids but could never become half as powerful as it did in this book.
I don't think it was unethical to do something like this for educations sake. The students had questions that the teacher simply could not answer or find the answer to in any books/resources and it could only be explained through this crazy experiment.
Once Hitler's face appeared as their "leader", I think the students learned a tonne about the evils of fascism. They had been grasped by the evil and it changed not only how they behaved but totally changed their personalities as well.
It's insane to think that an entire school got wrapped up in this little game and it makes me wonder just how far they would have taken it if Mr. Jones hadn't shown the students what they were turning into. Best book I've read in a long time!
Appeasemeant was a policy that Britain brought up for a way to avoid a world war two. Britain and France adopted this policy during the inter-war years because they were desperate to avoid a world war two.
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