The Third Wave

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Feb 20, 2006 7:40 PM

The Third Wave

 

 

The Third Wave is a true story that was written by Ron Jones in 1972.

It has been produced as a stage play and a video over the years. It is

a must read if you find yourself wondering late at night how the

United States was transformed from democracy to madness in just a few

years.

 

http://robwire.com/?q=node/933

 

 

The Third Wave

 

The true story behind the chilling video The Wave.

by Ron Jones

 

For years I kept a strange secret. I shared this silence with two

hundred students. Yesterday I ran into one of those students. For a

brief moment it all rushed back.

 

Steve Conigio had been a sophomore student in my World History class.

We ran into each other quite by accident. It's one of those occasions

experienced by teachers when they least expect. You're walking down

the street, eating at a secluded restaurant, or buying some underwear

when all of a sudden an ex-student pops up to say hello. In this case

it was Steve running down the street shouting " Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones. "

In an embarrassed hug we greet. I had to stop for a minute to

remember. Who is this young man hugging me? He calls me Mr. Jones.

Must be a former student. What's his name? In the split second of my

race back in time Steve sensed my questioning and backed up. Then

smiled, and slowly raised a hand in a cupped position. My God He's a

member of the Third Wave. It's Steve, Steve Conigio. He sat in the

second row. He was a sensitive and bright student. Played guitar and

enjoyed drama.

 

We just stood there exchanging smiles when without a conscious command

I raised my hand in curved position. The salute was give. Two comrades

had met long after the war. The Third Wave was still alive. " Mr. Jones

do you remember the Third Wave? " I sure do, it was one of the most

frightening events I ever experienced In the classroom. It was also

the genesis of a secret that I and two hundred students would sadly

share for the rest of our lives.

 

We talked and laughed about the Third Wave for the next few hours.

Then it was time to part. It's strange, you most a past student In

these chance ways, You catch a few moments of your life. Hold them

tight. Then say goodbye. Not knowing when and if you'd ever see each

other again. Oh, you make promises to call each other but It won't

happen. Steve will continue to grow and change. I will remain an

ageless benchmark in his life. A presence that will not change. I am

Mr. Jones. Steve turns and gives a quiet salute. Hand raised upward in

a shape of a curling wave. Hand curved in a similar fashion I return

the gesture.

 

The Third Wave. Well at last it can be talked about. Here I've met a

student and we've talked for hours about this nightmare. The secret

must finally be waning. It's taken three years. I can tell you and

anyone else about the Third Wave. It's now just a dream, something to

remember, no it's something we tried to forget. That's how it all

started. By strange coincidence I think it was Steve who started the

Third Ways with a question

 

.. We were studying Nazi Germany and in the middle of a lecture I was

interrupted by the question. How could the German populace claim

ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people. How could the

townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, claim they knew

nothing about concentration camps and human carnage. How can people

who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say

they weren't there when it happened. it was a good question. I didn't

know the answer.

 

In as such as there were several months still to go in the school year

and I was already at World War II, I decided to take a week and

explore the question.

 

STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE

On Monday, I introduced my sophomore history students to one of the

experiences that characterized Nazi Germany. Discipline. I lectured

about the beauty of discipline. How an athlete feels having worked

hard and regularly to be successful at a sport. How a ballet dancer or

painter works hard to perfect a movement. The dedicated patience of a

scientist in pursuit of an Idea. it's discipline. That self training.

Control. The power of the will. The exchange of physical hardships for

superior mental and physical facilities. The ultimate triumph.

 

To experience the power of discipline, I invited, no I commanded the

class to exercise and use a new seating posture; I described how

proper sitting posture assists mandatory concentration and strengthens

the will. in fact I instructed the class in a sitting posture. This

posture started with feet flat on the floor, hands placed flat across

the small of the back to force a straight alignment of the spine.

" There can't you breath more easily? You're more alert. Don't you feel

better. "

 

We practiced this new attention position over and over. I walked up

and down the aisles of seated students pointing out small flaws,

making improvements. Proper seating became the most important aspect

of learning. I would dismiss the class allowing them to leave their

desks and then call them abruptly back to an attention sitting

position. In speed drills the class learned to move from standing

position to attention sitting in fifteen seconds. In focus drills I

concentrated attention on the feet being parallel and flat, ankles

locked, knees bent at ninety degree angles, hands flat and crossed

against the back, spine straight, chin down, head forward. We did

noise drills in which talking was allowed only to be shown as a

detraction. Following minutes of progressive drill assignments the

class could move from standing positions outside the room to attention

sitting positions at their desks without making a sound. The maneuver

took five seconds.

 

It was strange how quickly the students took to this uniform code of

behavior I began to wonder just how far they could be pushed. Was this

display of obedience a momentary game we were all playing, or was it

something else. Was the desire for discipline and uniformity a natural

need? A societal instinct we hide within our franchise restaurants and

T.V. programming.

 

I decided to push the tolerance of the class for regimented action. In

the final twenty-five minutes of the class I introduced some new

rules. Students must be sitting in class at the attention position

before the late bell; all students Must carry pencils and paper for

note taking; when asking or answering questions a student must stand

at the side of their desk; the first word given in answering or asking

a question is " Mr. Jones. " We practiced short " silent reading "

sessions. Students who responded in a sluggish manner were reprimanded

and in every case made to repeat their behavior until it was a model

of punctuality and respect. The intensity of the response became more

important than the content. To accentuate this, I requested answers to

be given in three words or less. Students were rewarded for making an

effort at answering or asking questions. They were also acknowledged

for doing this in a crisp and attentive manner. Soon everyone in the

class began popping up with answers and questions. The involvement

level in the class moved from the few who always dominated discussions

to the entire class. Even stranger was the gradual improvement in the

quality of answers. Everyone seemed to be listening more intently. New

people were speaking. Answers *tarted to stretch out as students

usually hesitant to speak found support for their effort.

 

As for my part in this exercise, I had nothing but questions. Why

hadn't I thought of this technique before. Students seemed intent on

the assignment and displayed Accurate recitation of facts and

concepts. They even seemed to be asking better questions and treating

each other with more compassion. How could this be? Here I was

enacting an authoritarian learning environment and it seemed very

productive. I now began to ponder not just how far this class could be

pushed but how such I would change my basic beliefs toward an open

classroom and self directed learning. Was all my belief in Carl Rogers

to shrivel and die? Where was this experiment leading?

 

STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY

On Tuesday, the second day of the exercise, I entered the classroom to

find everyone sitting in silence at the attention position. Some of

their faces were relaxed with smiles that come from pleasing the

teacher. But most of the students looked straight ahead in earnest

concentration. Neck muscles rigid. No sign of a smile or a thought or

even a question. Every fibre strained to perform the deed. To release

the tension I went to the chalk board and wrote in big letters

" STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE. " Below this I wrote a second law,

" STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY. "

 

While the class sat in stern silence I began to talk lecture sermonize

about the value of community. At this stage of the game I was debating

in my own mind whether to stop the experiment or continue. I hadn't

planned such intensity or compliance. In fact I was surprised to find

the ideas on discipline enacted at all. While debating whether to stop

or go on with the experiment I talked on and on about community. I

made up stories from my experiences as an athlete, coach and

historian. It was easy. Community is that bond between individuals who

work and struggle together. It's raising a barn with your neighbors,

it's feeling that you are a part of something beyond yourself, a

movement, a team, La Raza, a cause.

 

It was too late to step back. I now can appreciate why the astronomer

turns relentlessly to the telescope. I was probing deeper and deeper

into my own perceptions and the motivations for group and individual

action. There was much more to see and try to understand. Many

questions haunted me. Why did the students accept the authority I was

imposing? Where is their curiosity or resistance to this marshal

behavior. When and how will this end?

 

Following my description of community I once again told the class that

community like discipline must be experienced if it is to be

understood. To provide an encounter with community I had the class

recite in unison " Strength Through Discipline. " " Strength Through

Community. " First I would have two students stand and call back our

motto. Then add two more until finally the whole class was standing

and reciting. It was fun. The students began to look at each other and

sense the power of belonging. Everyone was capable and equal. They

were doing something together. We worked on this simple act for the

entire class period. We would repeat the mottos in a rotating chorus.

or say then with various degrees of loudness. Always we said them

together, emphasizing the proper way to sit, stand, and talk.

 

I began to think of myself as a part of the experiment. I enjoyed the

unified action demonstrated by the students. It was rewarding to see

their satisfaction and excitement to do more. I found it harder and

harder to extract myself from the momentum and identity that the class

was developing. I was following the group dictate as much as I was

directing it.

 

As the class period was ending and without forethought I created a

class salute. It was for class members only. To make the salute you

brought your right hand up toward the right shoulder in a curled

position. I called it the Third Wave salute because the hand resembled

a wave about to top over. The idea for the three came from beach lore

that waves travel in chains, the third wave being the last and largest

of each series. Since we had a salute I made it a rule to salute all

class members outside the classroom. When the bell sounded ending the

period I asked the class for complete silence. With everyone sitting

at attention I slowly raised my arm and with a cupped hand I saluted.

It was a silent signal of recognition. They were something special.

Without command the entire group of students returned the salute.

 

Throughout the next few days students in the class would exchange this

greeting. You would be walking down the hall when all of a sudden

three classmates would turn your way each flashing a quick salute. In

the library or in gym students would be seen giving this strange hand

jive. You would hear a crash of cafeteria food only to have it

followed by two classmates saluting each other. The mystique of thirty

individuals doing this strange gyration soon brought more attention to

the class and its experiment into the German personality. Many

students outside the class asked if they could join.

 

STRENGTH THROUGH ACTION

On Wednesday, I decided to issue membership cards to every student

that wanted to continue what I now called the experiment. Not a single

student elected to leave the room. In this the third day of activity

there were forty-three students in the class. Thirteen students had

cut class to be a part of the experiment. While the class sat at

attention I gave each person a card. I marked three of the cards with

a red X and informed the recipients that they had a special assignment

to report any students not complying to class rules. I then proceeded

to talk about the meaning of action. I explained how discipline and

community were meaningless without action. I discussed the beauty of

taking full responsibility for ones action. Of believing so thoroughly

in yourself and your community or family that you will do anything to

preserve, protect and extend that being. I stressed how hard work and

allegiance to each Other would allow accelerated learning and

accomplishment. I reminded students of what it felt like being in

classes where competition caused pain and degradation. Situations in

which students were pitted against each other In everything from gym

to reading. The feeling of never acting, never being a part of

something, never supporting each other.

 

At this point students stood without prompting and began to give what

amounted to testimonials. " Mr. Jones, for the first time I'm learning

lots of things. " " Mr. Jones, why don't you teach like this all the tim

Continued