How is it that Buddhist Cambodians turn into unapologetic mass murderers? How could Christian Germans become fervent believers in, and followers of, Adolf Hitler marching millions to the gas chambers? What allowed U.S. military personnel, trained and understanding the Geneva Conventions and the Military Code of Conduct to inflict torture unto death on bound and helpless captives? Where do such people come from, because it’s certainly not us! We could never do such things.
In 1967 a young high school teacher, Ron Jones, set up a one day experiential learning situation, much like those he and his class had done before. To get the sophomore students in his class to understand South African apartheid he designated certain bathrooms as out of bounds. To teach capitalism he had students bring in goods to sell and process. This Monday was going to be an experiential lesson in how ordinary people willingly follow authoritarian leaders; it was to be another one day experience. It didn’t turn out that way.
The first day was devoted to bringing the class into a new mode of experience signaled by the slogan: Strength Through Discipline. They all joined in sitting erect, both feet on the floor, standing when answering, carrying paper and pencil at all times. They did speed drills to get into the class and be seated in the proper fashion. Jones strolled down the aisles correcting postures as a Yoga instructor might do today.
When Jones came into class on the second day he was surprised to see the class sitting as the day before, and wanting to go on. He improvised the next steps and the experiment went on for 5 to 7 days, attracting students from outside the class, indeed from outside the high school. The discipline got tighter. Informers did their work. Students were exiled to the library. Students were shunned. Fist fights broke out.
The movie Lesson Plan: The Story of the Third Wave, which appeared last night at the Mill Valley Film Festival, is a documentary of some of the student participants recalling the details of the experiment, their own emotions and actions at the time and how they see it now. They are all in their mid 50s. Several were at the showing. The film maker, Philip Neel, was himself one of the participants.
The movie progresses forward from day to day, intercutting stills and home movies taken that year with recent interviews of the participants. The triple story of what happened, how participants reacted and how they look on it now became clear one day at a time, each day getting worse.
Jones was fired at the end of that year and was never able to teach in a California public school again. (more…)
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