Lesson Plan

2016 • 75 хвилин

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Spring, 1967: Disillusionment, anger and confusion bubble to the surface of the nation’s psyche. American youth are on the precipice of a social revolution and, for a few tumultuous days Ron Jones, a young, gifted, and charismatic high school history teacher attempts a startling social experiment that will inspire comment and analysis to this day – along with a TV movie (The Wave), a novel, and the 2008 award-winning narrative German film Die Welle (Sundance, 2008). In 1967, Ron Jones was in his first year teaching at progressive, upper-middle class Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. To explain the appeal of fascism in Nazi Germany, he created a classroom setting wherein students subjugated personal freedom to the good of the community, following almost without question. Replete with salutes and Gestapo-like informants, the so-called Third Wave soon attracted scores of students throughout Cubberley and neighboring schools, spiraling out of Jones’ control. This moving recounting by Jones, school administrators, former students, and Dr. Philip Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment) enthralls with the force of inescapable conclusions, and demonstrates how its theme has only grown in relevance.

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Lesson Plan does a pretty sound job of exploring "The Third Wave" experiment. It is comprised almost entirely of interview footage. There's no omniscient narrator explaining the 'official' version of events: just people who were there recounting their own recollections and experiences. There are a number of discrepancies and differences between the accounts, but when people are recalling forty year old memories, that is only to be expected. I'd be a lot more suspicious if everyone was reciting the same chapter and verse. The interviewees include Ron Jones (the teacher who started the experiment), the then-principal of the school, and several of the students who were involved. The students in particular have differing memories of the Third Wave, and the range of responses and attitudes expressed - without anyone disputing the basic fact that it happened - does a lot to make the whole thing seem more real.

This movie has given me a lot to consider. I think more people should watch it and learn about the situation.