Originally called "The Third Wave"
was an experiment to demonstrate that even democratic societies are not
immune to the appeals of fascism.
Undertaken by history teacher Ron Jones with
sophomore high school students as part of a study of Nazi Germany.
The experiment took place at Cubberley High
School in Palo Alto, California in 1967.
Unable to explain to his students how the
German population could claim ignorance of the extermination of the Jewish
people, he decided to show them instead.
Jones started a movement called "The
third Wave".
Jones emphasized the main point of the
movement in the motto: "Strength through discipline, strength through
community, strength through action , strength through pride".
The experiment was not well documented at the
time and was only mentioned briefly in two issues in the Cubberley high
school student paper "The Cubberley Catamount". One more issue of
the paper has a longer article about the experiment and its conclusion.
Jones himself wrote a detailed account of the
experiment nine years afterwards, and some more articles and interviews
followed with Jones and the original students.
Originally the experiment was meant to last
one day, but had taken on a life of its own with students from all over the
school joining in.
On
the fourth day Jones decided to terminate the movement because it was
slipping out of his control. He announced that this movement was part of a
nationwide movement and that the next day a presidential
candidate would announce its existence publicly.
He
ordered students to attend a noon rally to witness the announcement.
There
was no televised address and students were presented with an empty channel.
Jones then told them that they had been part of an experiment in fascism and
that they willingly created a sense of superiority that German citizens had
in the period of Nazi Germany.
He
then played them a film about the Nazi regime to conclude the experiment.
Two
years after the experiment ended, Jones was fired from the school the reason
for the firing was never explicitly stated.
The
psychology involved in this experiment has been extensively studied in terms
of youth gang behavior and peer pressure.
The
events of the experiment were adapted into a 1981 TV special called "The Wave" and a young- adult
novelization by Todd Strasser pen named Morton Rhue.
The
2008 German film "Die Welle" transferred the experiment to a modern
day German classroom.
In
2010 a film documentary entitled "Lesson Plan" debuted. It retold
the story of the Third Wave through interviews with the original students and
teacher. It was produced by Philip Neel, one of Jones' students
