The Wave

It's a book. My grade 10s are reading it and in order to keep up with things that the teacher is talking about, I've begun reading it as well. The thing is though, that it is kind of a terrifying book.

It begins with a question asked by a student in a history class in high school- Why did no one try to stop the Nazis? The teacher decides to try an experiment on the class: He wants to show them why the Nazis were able to take power. From there, things go down hill at such an incredible rate. At first no one sees what is happening: not the students, not the teacher conducting the experiment, not the parents.

The experiment explodes out of control. People start to get hurt. It becomes a replay of a totalitarian society but in small town America. And that is what makes the book so scary- because the author shows just how fast and easy it is to fall into that trap. Which then makes you re-consider Germany's actions and see how easy it would have been for them to fall into the trap. Which then might cause you to stop and think.

It could have happened anywhere.

This book was based on the real life teaching experiment The Third Wave, conducted by Ron Jones in Palo Alto, California at Cubberley High School in 1967.