The Third Wave Experiment: An Invaluble Lesson or Reckless Class Project?
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In 1967 a history teacher started a fascist movement in a classroom. It rapidly grew out of control.
This is the story of a history professor who, over the space of a week, established a rapidly expanding student organization with designs on overthrowing democracy and ending the Vietnam war.
Thankfully, his plan wasn’t world domination. He just wanted to teach the students a lesson they would never forget.
Mr. Jones was a history teacher well known for his unconventional teaching methods. He was the type of teacher to show students how to think, not what to think.
He had once introduced the students to a holocaust survivor. On another occasion, he invited a member of the KKK to talk to the class. Not exactly your standard teaching method, but his students found the classes fascinating.
Although he was admired by both his students and the teaching faculty for his out-of-the-box approach, his creativity and boldness led to an experiment that his students never forgot.
The third wave experiment.
The story starts in Cubberley High School in 1967. Mr. Ron Jones was teaching his students about how the Nazi regime came to power.
He unveiled the horrors of the holocaust to his students and how a fringe party had risen to unchallenged power in a democratic state.
The students were moved by the accounts of the horrors of the holocaust but also deeply confused. How could the German people have just allowed something like that to happen?
Why didn’t anybody do anything to stop them?
Mr. Jones struggled to explain. He wanted his students to understand exactly how this had happened. An idea true to his teaching style would form in his mind.
He wouldn’t just tell them how. He would show them how by conducting an experiment in the form of a class project.
Strength through discipline!
Mr. Jones wrote this on the board on the first day of the experiment. He lectured the students on the…
