In April 1967, while working as a teacher at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, Jones created a project with his 15-year-old World History students in which they experienced the growth of a "fascist" movement, called The Wave. Jones intended for this to be only a week-long exercise. He had a designed lesson plan which included a salute, a slogan, and a secret "police" force. The experiment was ended by Jones after complaints from teachers and parents. Jones then revealed that it was an exercise 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 as a result of his anti-war activities two years after the experiment. There were large student protests against this decision. Jones has spent the past 30 years working with people with mental disabilities and has written a number of books.
Personal life
Jones was raised on 46th Avenue in the Sunset District during the 1940s and 1950s. He lives in the Haight Ashbury of San Francisco, with his wife Deanna. He is Jewish.
The Wave
1967 – The Third Wave," a classroom experiment. Jones created a week-long project for his sophomore History class at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto that was studying Nazi Germany. The experiment was designed to explore the question of how was it that the people of Germany could allow the rise of Fascism under National Socialism and claim ignorance of the atrocities that were committed by them to neighbors and friends. Jones called the classroom experiment "The Wave" which simulated how a movement aimed at eliminating democracy can be created, even in a free society. 1976 – "Take as Directed", an account by Jones of the experiment was published in Whole Earth Review. In the 1981 book No Substitute for Madness, it was retitled "The Third Wave". 1981 – The Wave, a TV movie produced by T.A.T. Communications, starring Bruce Davison, which appeaered as an ABC Afterschool Special. 1981 – The Wave, The Classroom Experiment That Went Too Far, a novelization of the TV movie by Todd Strasser. 2008 – Die Welle , a German film, directed by Dennis Gansel. This retelling takes place in a German classroom of 2008. 2010 – The Wave, A musical by Jones, directed by Cliff Mayotte, dramaturgy by David Ford. Performed at The Marsh in San Francisco by the Marsh Youth Theater's Teen Troupe. 2011 – Lesson Plan a documentary film by Philip Neel and featuring Jones. It was distributed by Mercury Media International. Neel had been an original Third Wave class member. The film has won a number of awards. 2011 – The Third Wave: A Full Length Play, script by Jones and Joseph Robinette.
