The Third Wave

[phantom power]

Mr. Jones writes that he started the first day of the experiment (Monday, April 3 1967<2> ) with simple things like proper seating, drilling the students until they were able to move from outside the classroom to their seats and take the proper seating position in less than 30 seconds without making a sound.<3> He then proceeded to strict classroom discipline emerging as an authoritative figure and improving efficiency of the class dramatically.

Jones closed the first day's session with a few rules, only meaning 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."<3>

On the second day he managed to meld his history class into a group with a supreme sense of discipline and community.<3> Jones named the movement "The Third Wave", after the common belief that the third in a series of ocean waves is last and largest.<3> Jones made up a salute resembling the one of Nazi regime<1> and ordered class members to salute each other even outside the class . They all complied with this command.<3>

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, etc). Jones instructed the students on how to initiate new members, and by the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants.<3> Jones was surprised that some of the students started reporting to him when other members of the movement failed to abide by the rules.<3>

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 astounding. He announced to the participants that this movement is only a part of a nationwide movement and that on the next day a presidential candidate of the movement would publicly announce existence of the movement. Jones ordered students to attend a noon rally on Friday to witness the announcement.<3>

Instead of a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with an empty channel. After few minutes of waiting, Jones announced that they have been a part of an experiment in fascism and that they all 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. That was the end of the experiment.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave

[EmilyKent]

1. I think the human need to belong to something,

anything, overwhelms common sense sometimes. It's the only way I can think of to explain it.