The Wave (by Morton Rhue)
Laurie Saunders is sitting at her desk to write for The Gordon Grapevine. All the others are outside because it is a lovely day. They don’t stop talking to their friends although they all know that they have to finish their next issue. The bell rings soon, so Laurie stands up and leaves the room to meet Amy in Mr Gabondi’s French class. When the break is over, both go into the classroom of Mr Ross. He tries to thread a film through the complex, because the class is going to see a film about the Second World War.
It is about the Germans and their active pressure on the fens. All the pupils are shocked because of the film. Lots of questions are asked and Ben Ross tries to give useful answers. He tells them about World War Two. They all are very interested and want to know more about the war. But then the bell rings and all pupils go out of the class except Laurie.
She tells her boyfriend David Collins to leave without her. She talks to Mr Ross and she wants to know why the people didn’t do anything against the Nazis. But he doesn’t know the answer to this question.
David has already finished when Laurie arrives at the canteen. David can’t understand why she has been bothered by the movie because all they saw was only history. After lunch Laurie and Amy go into The Grapevine’s office.
Laurie is smoking when someone knocks at the door. Carl Block and Alex Cooper, two guys from The Grapevine come in. They look what’s going on in here.
In the afternoon Ben Ross thinks about the questions he couldn’t answer in his history class. So he takes some books with him and goes home. Christy is playing tennis this afternoon, so he has enough time to go through some books to find the right answer.
When his wife comes home, Ben is sitting at the table and is reading in a book about the ”Third Reich”. He hardly notices her. She knows that her husband is very concentrated on those books because such situations have often occurred. So she goes to bed and let him know that he has to be quiet if he goes to bed that night.
In the next history lesson Mr Ross writes the sentence ”Strength through Discipline” on the blackboard. This is the first part of his experiment.
When he is talking about discipline he is talking about power and success. From that point the students become more interested. First they have to take a better sitting position and they have to wander through the classroom and sit down as fast as they can. At the beginning there is chatting and a big mess. For the next twenty minutes the class practise, then they do it in half the time.
Ross tells them three rules: everybody must have pencils and notepapers for note taking; asking or answering a question you must stand at the side of your seat; the first words you say asking or answering a question are ”Mr.
Ross”.
In the evening Ben talks to Christy and says that he doesn’t want to go on with it although he likes it because the students didn’t leave the class when the bell rang.
On the next day the students are already sitting on their seats in their posture. The teacher adds to the words ”Strength through Discipline” the word ”community”. There mottos are now: ”Strength through Discipline” and ”Strength through community”. The whole class has to stand up and repeat the mottos.
Then Mr Ross draws a circle with a shape of a wave in it on the blackboard. This is their common sign. They also have a common salute. The name of the experiment now is the wave.
David tries to get the football team into the wave because he sees a possibility to win more games and making a real team.
On the third day Ben gives them yellow membership cards.
Some have a red ”X” on the other side like Brian’s and Robert’s cards. Those pupils are like monitors. They have to denounce other students, who don’t obey the rules of the wave, directly to Mr Ross. Then they enlarge the motto by the third word ”Strength through Action”. From this day Ross wants them all to be equal and there are no competitions against each other.
The wave is no longer an idea or a game.
It is a living moment in the students.
Laurie is the only one who feels strange about the wave. The others like it because they are all equal, they don't have to worry how popular they are.
Laurie is sitting in The Grapevine office and asks the staff if they have written anything. Then they tell her to write about the wave. So she begins to get all information and interviews about the wave.
One Teacher, Norm Schiller, has never talked to any teacher, but now, he is the trainer of the football team, he congratulates Ben because he thinks that the wave is something great.
Laurie is doing her homework when her mother comes into her room. They talk about the wave, the pros and cons and Robert Billings, who has changed completely because he has started to speak with his classmates, in contrast to former times.
Next day Ben has to come to Principal Owens. When he enters the room they speak about the wave. Ben tells him how the thing started and what it is about.
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