5 ms·

It's really strange to me that this story seems to be so unknown in the US. It's such an important and powerful lesson. In contrast, I was educated in a Europe

It's really strange to me that this story seems to be so unknown in the US. It's such an important and powerful lesson. In contrast, I was educated in a European system, and in history class there was strong emphasis on the lessons of being subjected to or being on the brink of a fascist system. There are memorials to the Shoah and the Resistance in every town. The US enjoyed the luxury of saying "it didn't happen here", but the education system at large really seems to have willfully ignored the lessons Europe has learned. Hell, the movie about this was german!

arnarbi 7y ago
There was an earlier, but seemingly less popular American TV movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(1981_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(1981_film)
- neuronexmachina 7y ago
  I remember watching that in my public school in Florida in the early 90s.
jadell 7y ago
I went to public school in the US. We read the book _The Wave_ in 9th grade (possibly 8th, I don't really remember. It was early high school.) I don't remember ever discussing that it was based on a true event. I didn't learn that until much later. I feel like it would have had a much bugger impact if that fact had been included in the lesson.
inamberclad 7y ago
No kidding. I went to high school in the next town over and have never heard about this.
garmaine 7y ago
There is no “US educational system.” School policy is set at the state and local level. I remember being taught this material and the book being assigned reading.
- drdeadringer 7y ago
  To be pedantic, OP included the words "at large". There is always a special case that counters the generalization, for example you being taught this material whilst your neighbor or coworker was not.
dang 7y ago
The Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiments are well known in the US, and in the same space, so I don't think this generalization works. (Edit: Also the Asch conformity experiments.) Edit: after reading the article, maybe there's a more interesting reason why this episode is less known: no one talked about it publicly for many years after it happened. "Silence is what happens when you feel shame." Edit 2 — and then there's this: "I'm not proud of the Wave, and I don't want to see it repeated," said Jones, who has turned down inquiries about how to re-enact the Wave from everyone from cult leader Jim Jones to a British television company wanting to turn the experiment into a reality show. Say what? Jim Jones? Edit 3: if the 1972 date on http://libcom.org/history/the-third-wave-1967-account-ron-jones http://libcom.org/history/the-third-wave-1967-account-ron-jo... is accurate, then the OP is wrong that nobody talked about it publicly for over a decade.
- AceJohnny2 7y ago
  ah. I hadn't realized how much the participants themselves were quiet about it. Then it makes sense that it's not more well-known.
- rossdavidh 7y ago
  I recall learning about this in high-school, which was in the Midwest in the early 1980's, so I don't know that it's as unknown in the U.S. as you say.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
throwaway40324 7y ago
This is the first time I've ever encountered this story, too. I went to Indiana school districts.
grawprog 7y ago
In Canada we had to read it and learned the story behind it in high school. I can't remember when exactly grade 9 or 10, but that was definitely one of the books we covered. Reading through the comments here I was surprised too to see so many people hadn't heard the story.
jeffwass 7y ago
Not sure why you think this. In New a Jersey back in 1986 my 6th grade class read the short story “The Wave”. We knew it was based on a real school event and talked about it afterwards. I think we might have even read it again in 8th grade. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel)
msla 7y ago
Your biases are showing, and so is your ignorance. I was explicitly taught this in high school, and your insistence that I wasn't grates. It's impossible to generalize the way you have for reasons you apparently fail to understand, but what's worse are your biases preventing you from realizing there even are things you don't understand. Truly, this is Dunning-Kruger on a grotesque level, given the subject matter.
msla 7y ago
Please delete your troll.

arnarbi 7y ago

There was an earlier, but seemingly less popular American TV movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(1981_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(1981_film)

neuronexmachina 7y ago
I remember watching that in my public school in Florida in the early 90s.

jadell 7y ago

I went to public school in the US. We read the book _The Wave_ in 9th grade (possibly 8th, I don't really remember. It was early high school.) I don't remember ever discussing that it was based on a true event. I didn't learn that until much later. I feel like it would have had a much bugger impact if that fact had been included in the lesson.

inamberclad 7y ago

No kidding. I went to high school in the next town over and have never heard about this.

garmaine 7y ago

There is no “US educational system.” School policy is set at the state and local level. I remember being taught this material and the book being assigned reading.

drdeadringer 7y ago
To be pedantic, OP included the words "at large". There is always a special case that counters the generalization, for example you being taught this material whilst your neighbor or coworker was not.

dang 7y ago

The Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiments are well known in the US, and in the same space, so I don't think this generalization works. (Edit: Also the Asch conformity experiments.) Edit: after reading the article, maybe there's a more interesting reason why this episode is less known: no one talked about it publicly for many years after it happened. "Silence is what happens when you feel shame." Edit 2 — and then there's this: "I'm not proud of the Wave, and I don't want to see it repeated," said Jones, who has turned down inquiries about how to re-enact the Wave from everyone from cult leader Jim Jones to a British television company wanting to turn the experiment into a reality show. Say what? Jim Jones? Edit 3: if the 1972 date on http://libcom.org/history/the-third-wave-1967-account-ron-jones http://libcom.org/history/the-third-wave-1967-account-ron-jo... is accurate, then the OP is wrong that nobody talked about it publicly for over a decade.

AceJohnny2 7y ago
ah. I hadn't realized how much the participants themselves were quiet about it. Then it makes sense that it's not more well-known.
rossdavidh 7y ago
I recall learning about this in high-school, which was in the Midwest in the early 1980's, so I don't know that it's as unknown in the U.S. as you say.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

throwaway40324 7y ago

This is the first time I've ever encountered this story, too. I went to Indiana school districts.

grawprog 7y ago

In Canada we had to read it and learned the story behind it in high school. I can't remember when exactly grade 9 or 10, but that was definitely one of the books we covered. Reading through the comments here I was surprised too to see so many people hadn't heard the story.

jeffwass 7y ago

Not sure why you think this. In New a Jersey back in 1986 my 6th grade class read the short story “The Wave”. We knew it was based on a real school event and talked about it afterwards. I think we might have even read it again in 8th grade. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel)

msla 7y ago

Your biases are showing, and so is your ignorance. I was explicitly taught this in high school, and your insistence that I wasn't grates. It's impossible to generalize the way you have for reasons you apparently fail to understand, but what's worse are your biases preventing you from realizing there even are things you don't understand. Truly, this is Dunning-Kruger on a grotesque level, given the subject matter.

msla 7y ago

Please delete your troll.