The Third Wave was an experimental social movement created by high school
history teacher Ron Jones to explain how the German populace could accept the
actions of the Nazi regime during the Second World War. While he taught his
students about Nazi Germany during his "Contemporary World History" class,
Jones found it difficult to explain how the German people could accept the
actions of the Nazis, and decided to create a social movement as a
demonstration of the appeal of fascism. Over the course of five days, Jones
conducted a series of exercises in his classroom emphasizing discipline and
community, intended to model certain characteristics of the Nazi movement. As
the movement grew outside his class and began to number in the hundreds, Jones
began to feel that the movement had spiraled out of control. He convinced
the students to attend a rally where he claimed the announcement of a Third Wave
presidential candidate would be televised. Upon their arrival, the
students were presented with a blank channel and told his students of the
true nature of the movement as an experiment in fascism, presenting the
students with a short film discussing the actions of Nazi Germany.
Background to the Third Wave experiment The experiment took place at Cubberley
High School in Palo Alto, California, during the first week of April 1967.[2]
Jones, finding himself unable to explain to his students how the German
population could have claimed ignorance of the extermination of the Jewish
people, decided to demonstrate it to them instead. Jones started a movement
called "The Third Wave" and told his students that the movement aimed to
eliminate democracy. The idea 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 was not well documented at the time. Of contemporary sources,
the experiment is only mentioned in the Cubberley High School student newspaper,
The Cubberley Catamount. It is only briefly mentioned in two issues, and one
more issue of the paper has a longer article about this experiment at its
conclusion. Jones himself wrote a detailed account of the experiment some
nine years afterwards and more articles about the experiment followed, including
some interviews with Jones and the original students.
Chronology = First day =
Jones writes that he started the first day of the experiment with simple things
such as proper seating and extensively drilling the students. He then proceeded
to enforce strict classroom discipline by emerging as an authoritarian figure
and dramatically improving the efficiency of the class.
The first day's session was closed with only a few rules, intending to be a
one-day experiment. Students had to be sitting at attention before the second
bell, had to stand up to ask or answer questions and had to do it in three
words or fewer, and were required to preface each remark with "Mr. Jones".
= Second day = On the second day, he managed to meld
his history class into a group with a supreme sense of discipline and
community. Jones based the name of his movement, "The Third Wave", on the
supposed fact that the third in a series of waves is the strongest, an erroneous
version of an actual sailing tradition that every ninth wave is the largest.
The name may also be related to the "Third Reich", a synonym for Nazi
Germany. Jones made up a salute resembling that of the Nazi regime and
ordered class members to salute each other even outside the class. They all
complied with this command. = Third day =
The experiment took on a life of its own, with students from all over the
school joining in: on the third day, the class expanded from initial 30 students
to 43 attendees. All of the students showed drastic improvement in their
academic skills and tremendous motivation. All of the students were
issued a member card, and each of them received a special assignment, like
designing a Third Wave Banner, stopping non-members from entering the class, or
the like. Jones instructed the students on how to initiate new members, and by
the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants. Jones was surprised
that some of the students started reporting to him when other members of
the movement failed to abide by the rules.
= Fourth day = On Thursday, the fourth day of the
experiment, Jones decided to terminate the movement because it was slipping out
of his control. The students became increasingly involved in the project and
their discipline and loyalty to the project was outstanding. He announced to
the participants that this movement was a part of a nationwide movement and that
on the next day a presidential candidate of the Third Wave would publicly
announce its existence. Jones ordered students to attend a noon rally on
Friday to witness the announcement. = Fifth and last day =
Instead of a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with
an empty channel. After a few minutes of waiting, Jones announced that they had
been a part of an experiment in fascism and that they all willingly created a
sense of superiority like German citizens had in the period of Nazi
Germany. He then played them a film about the Nazi regime to conclude the
experiment. Afterwards
On the 10th of October 2010, a film documentary, Lesson Plan, retelling the
story of the Third Wave through interviews with the original students
and teacher, debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It was produced by Philip
Neel, one of Jones's own former students.
= Dramatizations = The events of the experiment were
adapted into a 1981 TV special, The Wave, and a young-adult novelization by
Todd Strasser. The 2008 German film Die Welle transferred the experiment to a
modern-day German classroom to critical acclaim.
In 2010, Jones staged a musical called The Wave, written with some of the
students in the class. See also
Human experimentation in the United States
Pluralistic ignorance Groupthink
Asch conformity experiments Notes
^ In, which was published on Friday, April 7, reports of "strange happenings
in Mr. Jones' [...] classes" are mentioned without further detail, which
confirms that the movement was active, but not yet finished in the week
starting on April 3, 1967. In, published on April 21, the experiment is dated
"two weeks ago", which also puts the experiment in the first week of April –
in fact, it calls out "...Wednesday, April 5, the last day of the movement."
References Further reading
Klink, Bill. April 21, 1967. "The Third Wave presents inside look at Fascism",
The Cubberley Catamount, Volume 11, No. 14, Page 3.
Leler, Robin and Sakuma, Bernice. April 7, 1967. The Cubberley Catamount, Volume
11, No. 13, Page 2. Column entitled "Through the Tiger Eye".
Strasser, T. 1981. The Wave. New York: Dell Publishing Co.
Williams, Sylvia Berry. 1970. Hassling. New York: Little, Brown. Page 51 in
Chapter 7. External links
The original essay by Jones Lesson Plan – Third Wave documentary
film, as told by the original Third Wave students and teacher
Official website – story history, FAQ and links by original Third Wave
students TheWave.tk – includes information about
novel, stage and screen adaptations of the story
"Nazis für fünf Tage" in Der Spiegel Whiting, Sam. "In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher
Ron Jones looks back". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Corp. Retrieved
January 30, 2010.