Nate Hochstetler
Mr. Bonds
English Seminar 4
March 9, 2012
History Repeats Itself
When a high school teacher does not act professional or fulfill
their duties as a teacher, they become unethical. Many characteristics
can define an ethical teacher, but they all boil down to four principle
characteristics; one who successfully educates the students, protects
the students, treats the students fairly as equals, and does not
manipulate their impressionable minds. While Ben Ross successfully
educates the students about the Nazi people through his experiment,
he fails to reach the other characteristics. In the novel The Wave by
Todd Strasser, Ben Ross acts unethically by not protecting the
students, treating the students unfairly by using propaganda
techniques, and manipulating their impressionable minds.
As a teacher, Ben Ross must protect his students, which he fails
to do in The Wave. Ben Ross creates and leads The Wave, so he has full
responsibility for the people in the Wave and the effects it causes. At
the beginning of the Wave, Ben Ross seemingly protects the students.
However, as the Wave evolves, the students become less protected.
Members of the Wave begin to mistreat and torment the others, or
those not in the Wave. Later on in the novel, a fight breaks out
between a Wave member, Brian, and a non-Wave member, Deutsch.
These two characters have a history of dislike, but the Wave finally tips
them over the top. Again, Ben Ross fails to protect his students when
David torments Laurie: Almost out of control, he screamed Shut up!
and threw her down on the grass (Strasser 114). Previous to David
throwing Laurie, they fought over Lauries work about the Wave in the
school newspaper. David becomes frustrated when she refuses to stop.
The Wave overcomes David and he becomes so caught-up in it that he
throws Laurie to the ground. Since David acts out in the name of the
Wave, the responsibility for the incident lies on Ben Ross. Evidently
through the previous examples, Ben Ross unethically fails to protect
the students. As an ethical teacher, he should have protected his
students.
Ben Ross immorally violates the rights of the students through
the use of propaganda techniques. For the Wave, he utilizes
propaganda techniques to lure students to join. Ben Ross uses his
power as leader of the Wave to treat the students unfairly by using the
propaganda techniques. He first utilizes the technique of bandwagon.
Ben Ross tells his students to recruit new members of the wave: Now
your first action as a team will be to actively recruit new members. To
become a member of The Wave, each new student must demonstrate
knowledge of our rules and pledge strict obedience (Strasser 60). By
Ben Ross allowing current members to recruit new members, he starts
to create the bandwagon effect. The members not already in the Wave
see everyone joining and feel that they need to join so they can
become part of the in group. Also, Ben Ross unfairly utilizes the
technique of glittering generalities. In the motto of the Wave, Ben Ross
includes words such as strength, discipline, community and
action. The previous words appeal to the emotions of the students
and make them want to join. Hearing the words in the motto implies
that if one joins the group, they will obtain the strength, discipline,
community and action characteristics. Regardless of whether or
not the students do obtain those characteristics, Ben Ross should not
have utilized them to appeal to the students emotions. Ben Ross also
uses the propaganda technique of transfer in an unfair way. At the
Wave meeting in the end of the novel, Ben Ross promises a lecture
from the national Wave leader. The national Wave leader acts as a
symbol to motivate and increase the dedication the students have for
the Wave. Despite the fact that he unethically uses a symbol to do this,
he also uses a non-existent person. Ben Ross promises a national
leader but full-knowingly lies to the students. Ben Ross treats the
students unfairly by using the previous propaganda techniques
because they mislead the students. Ultimately, by using the
propaganda techniques, Ben Ross becomes an unethical teacher.
Manipulating the minds of a high school student proves easy
since they have young impressionable minds. In The Wave, Ben Ross
takes advantage of the students impressionability when he creates his
experiment, the Wave. Ben Ross wants the Wave to represent life as a
Nazi. By doing so, he makes his students experiments and molds them
into something not human. He manipulates their minds into believing
they participate in something real, when in actuality Ben Ross makes
them non-human experiments. He unethically forces them to believe in
something fake. Also, Ben Ross manipulates them to act out Nazi
characteristics. The Nazi party had a notorious salute, so Ben Ross
simulates this in his experiment: And this will be our salute, he said,
cupping his right hand in the shape of a wave, then tapping it against
his left shoulder and holding it upright (Strasser 43). As a sign of
acknowledgment, members of the Nazi party would do a unique salute
to one another. Similarly, Ben Ross manipulates the students to do the
same with their own Wave salute and essentially makes them into a
Nazi group. Again, Ben Ross manipulates the students by ripping out
the rug from underneath them. At the end of the novel when he
recognizes the terror of the Wave, he abruptly puts an end to it. He
begins by manipulating the students minds into believing in the Wave
and making it their life. When he just stops the Wave, though, he
manipulates their minds even more. Many, if not all, of the members of
the Wave saw it as a lifestyle, and they lived by it. So, when Ben Ross
ended it by pretty much telling them they turned into Nazis, many
became confused and angry. Ben Ross takes the students from reality
and puts them into an idea, the Wave. Then, he destroys the Wave and
puts them back into reality, causing anger and confusion. He
manipulated the students minds by taking them out of the idea of the
Wave, and also by putting them into it and forcing Nazi characteristics
onto them. A teacher must not manipulate the minds of the students,
especially not in a negative way. Ben Ross, however, does manipulate
the students minds and becomes an unethical teacher.
It scares people to think that Nazi life existed, and the terror that
Nazis caused. Many historians, politicians, and even average people,
though, claim it has not and will not happen again. The claim that it
has not and will not happen again bases on ones opinion, though.
Some may see branches of the U.S. Army as Nazi-like due to their strict
discipline and sometimes-questionable actions. Many Americans today
still have racist or prejudice ideas against certain people and religions,
which can be taken as Nazi-like. Regardless of if one believes that
similar Nazi life still exists, through The Wave it becomes evident that
similar Nazi life can easily reoccur.
