Ron Jones (teacher)

Ron Jones (born 1941 San Francisco) is an American writer, teacher in Palo Alto, California, and San Francisco, California and storyteller. He is internationally known for the adaptation of his classroom experience he started, called THE THIRD WAVE. The Third Wave was the inspiration for The Wave, a famous book by Todd Strasser, and the movie based on the book, for which he won the Emmy and Peabody Awards. His books The Acorn People and B-Ball have been made into TV dramas. Ron lives in San Francisco, California where he performs regularly as a storyteller.

Life and Work

Jones was raised on 46th Avenue in the Sunset District during the 1940s and 50s. In the mid-sixties, while working as a high school teacher in Palo Alto, Ron Jones created a project with his 15 year old World History students in which they experienced the growth of a fascistic movement in their class, which was called The Wave. It was intended as a week-long experiential project. Jones designed lesson plans which created a movement, including a salute, a slogan and a secret police force. The experiment spiraled out of control and was ended by Jones after complaints from teachers and parents. Jones then revealed that it was a hoax intended to give students a direct experience of how easily they could be misled into behaving like fascists, drawing parallels to the rise of the National Socialist movement in Germany. Jones says that he was refused tenure at Cubberley High School because of his anti-war activities two years after the experiment. There were huge student protests against this decision.

He has spent the past 30 years working with people with mental disabilities.

He lives in the Haight Ashbury of San Francisco, with his wife Deanna. He also wrote the story entitled The Acorn People. It is a story of Jones experience as a camp counselor.

The Third Wave - Time Line

1967 - "The Third Wave," a classroom experience.i am, a boss Ron Jones created a week-long project for his sophomore, History class at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto that was studying Nazi Germany. The experiment was designed to explore the question, how was it that the people of Germany could allow the rise of the Fascism, under Nazism, and claim ignorance of the atrocities that were committed by them to neighbors and friends. Jones called the classroom experiment the "Third Wave," which simulated how a movement aimed at eliminating democracy can be created, even in a free society.

1976 - "No Substitute for Madness: a teacher, his kids and the lessons of real life."No substitute for madness: a teacher, his kids, & the lessons of real life. A short story about the "Third Wave" was published by Ron Jones in the Whole Earth Review.

1981 - "The Wave," a TV movie produced by Norman Lear

1981 - "The Wave, the classroom experiment that went too far" a book by Todd Strasser (aka Morton Rhue). A fictionalized version of the Norman Lear film, based on the original classroom experience by Ron Jones.

2008 - Die Welle (The Wave) A German film, directed by Dennis Gansel based on Jones' experiment, this fictionalized version is set in a German classroom of 2008.

2010 - The Wave, a musical By Ron Jones, directed by Cliff Mayotte, dramaturgy by David Ford. Performed at The Marsh in San Francisco by the Marsh Youth Theater's (MYT's) Teen Troupe. The musical play is based on an actual classroom experiment in fascism conducted by Jones in 1967.

2011 - "Lesson Plan, the story of The Third Wave" a documentary film, featuring Ron Jones, by Philip Neel, State of Crisis Productions. Philip Neel was an original Third Wave class member. The film has won numerous awards and now has worldwide distribution with Mercury Media International.

Awards

• Christian Book of the Year for The Acorn People
• Pulitzer nomination for Kids Called Crazy
• 1985 American Book Award for Say Ray,
• When God Winked and Fellini Grinned a self published book was recently recommended by Oprah Winfrey on her show about autism.

Works

• B-Ball: The Team That Never Lost a Game. Random House Children's Books. 1991. ISBN 978-0-553-29404-0.
• The Acorn People. Bantam Books. 1990. ISBN 978-0-553-27385-4.
• Say Ray. Bantam. 1984. ISBN 978-0-553-24349-9.
• Kids Called Crazy. Bantam Books. 1982. ISBN 978-0-553-20689-0.
• No substitute for madness: a teacher, his kids, & the lessons of real life. Island Press. 1981. ISBN 978-0-933280-06-9.

• The Wave Todd Strasser

Teleplays

• The Acorn People Charles Joffe producer, starring Cloris Leachman, LeVar Burton, Ted Bessell
• The Wave Producer-Norman Lear
• One Special Victory Starring John Larroquette

External links

• Ron Jones's website
• The Cubberley Student Newspaper (the Catamount) did an interview with Ron Jones from 1969 after he left Cubberley.
• Article about a new German film based on The Wave
• Ron Jones' account of The Wave
• "Ron Jones (III)", IMDb
• The Wave Home Third Wave info website: story history, FAQ, links, etc. by Jones' original Wave students
• Die Welle website