Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to find out the answer to a question yourself, so you conduct a small experiment? Well that is what this teacher did to get through to his students. But it got a little out of control and the outcome was not expected. The Wave by Todd Strasser is about a history teacher showing students how the Nazis functioned as a group through a little experiment that soon got out of hand. It all begins when the history teacher at Gordon High School couldn’t answer his students’ questions about the Nazis. As a teacher, Ben Ross’s job is to provide responses for the young students. But when he finds himself stumped, he decides to engage the class into a little experiment called The Wave. As shown on page 25, Ben wonders “Why hadn’t he been able to give the students adequate answers to their questions? Was the behavior of the majority of the Germans during the Nazi regime really so inexplicable?” He concludes that “It just may be an answer they have to learn for themselves (Strasser 28).” This shows that Ben has acted accordingly to what he was facing. In conclusion, Ben’s environment has affected him. …show more content…
Ben has practically brainwashed the high school seniors. According to the principal of the school, Principal Owens on page 122 of the book, “I don’t care about your experiment. I’ve got teachers complaining, I’ve got parents calling me every five minutes to know what the hell’s going on here, what the hell are we doing with their kids.” As shown here, parents, teachers, and the principal aren’t too pleased with The Wave. The Wave has caused fights to break out between students because some people don’t want to be members of what started to look like a cult. Principal Owens has even threatened to fire Ben. All because of The Wave getting out of control. As a result, Mr. Ross has to deal with the issue of his experiment getting carried
“The Great Wave: Hokusai” by Donald Finkel is a poem written about “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”, an artwork produced from 1831 to 1833 by Katsushika Hokusai during the Edo period. The “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” is just one of "The Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji". This woodblock print portrays a tremendous tsunami overpowering small man-powered boats, along with Mount Fuji in the background. The compelling contrast between the turbulent waves and light colored sky draws the viewer’s eyes to the central figure of Mount Fuji, which was considered a sacred symbol of beauty and immortality. In order for Finkel to develop a connection with Hokusai’s work of art, he finds common ground between the world of the artist and the observer. Donald Finkel’s
Ross, a history teacher had showed his class the history of the german camps in world war two. The students couldn't believe what the germans had done in the camps, slaughtering thousands of people in horrifying ways. The class also questioned why the germans didn't admit to this, why they fled from it when it was brought up, why didn't they just not follow the command of Hitler? Ross took interest into this idea of why they didn't, so the following
He had been punished for saving the lives of several students and risking the life of his principal when a fellow student had accidentally loaded a live mortar shell. Even though no one died he was expelled for destroying the principal's office. Next Ben realized that being at Evil Spy School was better than Spy School because everything at Spy School hasn’t been refurbished since the Civil War while everything at Evil Spy School was brand new and not worn. “This was a change from spy school, where the dormitory toilets probably hadn’t been cleaned since the Clinton administration”(Gibbs 61). Ben is saying that everything at spy school has been used for quit a long time and hasn’t been cleaned like the toilets and how the showers were shared. “Having a private shower was pretty cool, too. The ones at spy school were all shared.”(Gibbs
My picture book lesson that developed as a result of this class discussion was presented to a ninth grade college-prep level class at Bishop Hendricken High School. Hendricken is an all-male Catholic high school, and this particular class has thirty students. Although there is not a great deal of diversity at Hendricken (about 90% Caucasian students), this class is fairly diverse. There are four African-American students, seven Hispanic-American students, one Japanese-American student, one Syrian-American student, and one Indian-American student in the class. Most students’ literacy skills are at or above reading level, but there are three students with 504 plans (each with ADD) and one other student with dyslexia. The class has been reading Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, and based on a survey of the students most have had limited experience studying the Holocaust.
During the Holocaust many Germans stated that they where only following what their superiors commanded them to do. So Stanly Milgram, a psychologist, performed an experiment to see if the individual is responsible for their actions when they are told what to do and are given reassurance that they are not responsible for their actions. Stanly Milgram did an advertisement in the paper and paid volunteers just to show up for an experiment. The volunteers were told that the experiment was on memory and learning. The test subjects where paired up with one another without knowing that those they paired up with are actually actors. The test was staged so that the one subject was a teacher and the actor was the student. They put the student in a room and strapped him to a chair with a shock generator. The teacher was in a separate room with the experimenter and was directed to shock the student 15 voltes higher for every questions the student got wrong. After several times some of the teachers asked the experimenter who is responsible if anything would happen to the learner. The Experimenter stated that “I am responsible”. Several test subjects shocked their learner to
Have you ever been so into a school assignment you became addicted? The wave is a very intriguing novel written by todd strasser,about a senior history class that is researching the holocaust! They take a bit more of an interest than the teacher had anticipated causing him to come up with a rather extravagant method to help them better understand the event! Students prefer exposure to discipline to keep their lives structured and efficient.To better understand the wave it is very important to see it in different view points; a postive viewpoint by brian collins,a negative view point by laurie saunders,and then finally in the teacher view point.once you see all the view points you too will understand discipline is the ultimate tool to unity and maximum life results.
Imagine you were in school just doing your work and suddenly your teacher starts acting like a dictator and makes you guys salute him and he teaches you correct posture like in the holocaust. Would you enjoy this? I wouldn’t! I would feel like I am actually in the holocaust
Mr. Jones, a normal history Teacher turned “Hitler equivalent” ? Mr. Jone one day was having a discussion over Nazi Germany during War World II, while during the discussion a student Interrupted him and asked the questions “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?” These all questions that Mr. Jones didn't have the answers to, He decided to conduct as what we know as “The Third Wave” Experiment which was based on the rules of order and discipline, the same as the Nazis in Germany. This unknowingly caused Mr. Jones class turn into Nazis and himself into a modern day Hitler. When he finally realized what he was doing to himself
Mr. Jones wasn’t happy with what he had done most likely because it went a little too far and it might have made students feel bad afterwards. This was because The Wave was so much similar to Nazis. He wanted to use The Wave as a lesson because a student had asked, “Why didn’t someone try and stop Hitler, because it was obvious he was murdering the Jews?” Mr. Jones used the same technique to trick the students into thinking they were apart of something big.
Initially believing he was teaching about fascism's dangers, he ironically realizes he inadvertently starts his own movement through The Wave, underscoring the complexity and unforeseen repercussions of his leadership. His confession emphasises the moral significance of his behaviour as well as the extent of his influence over the students. It acts as an alarm, illustrating the risks of uncontrolled power and the requirement for ethical
Because we knew about the Nazi’s and what they had done to the Jews before we read the novel, we had some sort of expectation of what would happen in The Wave. From knowing this information, we knew that the topic of The Wave would have something to do with power and control over people, and manipulating them into doing something that isn 't necessarily correct. Because we knew that the Nazi’s tricked people into believing what they were doing was right, we were then able to understand that the novel would have some sort of basis on this. Which then happened to be true, Ben Ross the history teacher who came up with the idea became the leader of The Wave and started the new revolution. The whole topic of the wave is based on what Hitler and the Nazi party did, this is illustrated through the novel, when Ben Ross realises what he has done and still chooses to keep it going on even though he knew that it wasn’t the right thing and it was spinning out of control very quickly.
There were about 500,000 living survivors of the Holocaust in 2014. It is vital for students to be taught about the Holocaust in school. The article, "combating" shows that the students need to be aware that the event did in fact happen. The article "Genocide" shows students what happens when hate against one group or culture becomes too much. Elie Wiesel's Night shows students an eyewitness account of how much violence, brutality, and abuse to the prisoners had to go through in the Holocaust. Though some people are against the subject of the Holocaust because it is too graphic or mature for the students, it is important that students learn from a trusted adult instead of letting other students try to teach it to themselves. The students should learn about the subject of the Holocaust in school because it teaches the importance of equality, about the events occurrence, and teaching about the dangers of discrimination and abuse.
Gruwell taught her class about the Holocaust, the genocide of Jews. While learning about this major event in class the students were able to see how another person’s hatred affected someone’s life. They saw that many of the victims did not survive and were killed simply because of their race. This drew a parallel for the students to see how their hatred and violence against each other was senseless. In the same way Hitler killed Jews because of their race, they were killing each other. From learning about the Holocaust the students were able to step outside from their own personal norms, and examine a situation from a new or different
The Wave is a 2008 movie which is based on a real social experiment. The Third Wave experiment created in California with high school students and a teacher. The movie represents this experiment. It shows the audiences can fascism and autocracy occur in modern day Germany. In this essay, I will examine The Wave in the light of fascism.
In “Hungry” and “On Becoming Educated” by Joy Castro as well as “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin, personal and political history work in similar ways to uncover the magnitude of similarities everyone contains. Castro uses her personal stories to emphasize societal norms, in relation to feminism, and how they affect and have affected learning similarly in history and modern times. Griffin takes on a similar task, but she relates her childhood interactions with family to those affected by the Holocaust, particularly Heinrich Himmler. Both writers identify sections in which they utilize elements of autobiography to connect individual life to the larger cultural and political implications by placing similar stories in order and broadening their choice of words and phrases. Castro and Griffin portray exactly how similar actions and occurrences can be due to the way society influences people and their ignorance, deception, and hidden intentions.