The book The Wave is still being read in schools--we sold a bunch of copies over the summer since it was on a local school's summer reading list.

I remember seeing that Afterschool Special when it was first aired; it really freaked me out!

And reading further down the page, I see that he does deny the gas chambers. Also pretty much claims that Jews control wikipedia.

Jews control all of the internets, don't they?

I don't actually feel great. I hope I'm not getting sick.

If you're me, randomly falling asleep is a sure sign of getting sick. But it can also be a way to avoid it!

I ended up on this page. [link] It starts out with debunking parts of the story -- a few details that don't add up, the number of students involved seems bigger than it should be, and so on. I keep reading.

I just skimmed from the top, and off the bat, he seems to be wondering why people think teaching Nazism would be a bad thing.

No sick for Dana!

How about the epic battle between were-dinos and vampire dinos? That would be an almost unparalleled opportunity for bad CGI.

I have this sudden urge to watch Underworld...

Fascinating, Hil. He seems to be deeply confused in many ways, but what strikes me most are two things. First I am a bit boggled that he finds a great deal of similarity between yoga and Nazism. But what really gets me is his whole argument that mental discipline doesn't lead to killing Jews. It's so completely wrongheaded that it's hard to actually get in there and point out what's wrong with it without giving yourself a headache.

But what really gets me is his whole argument that mental discipline doesn't lead to killing Jews. It's so completely wrongheaded that it's hard to actually get in there and point out what's wrong with it without giving yourself a headache.

Yeah. It's just so weird, and so completely missing the point.

I had to stop reading that page really pretty quickly, because I was so creeped out.

I also just found an archive of the school newspaper from that time period. Seems like that teacher was pretty controversial in a bunch of ways. The next year, he claimed to be a member of SDS planted as an informer in the National Guard, and then claimed it was to teach about China in the early 1900s. He was also trying to get something called "Idea Forum" approved as a class. (I suspect many high schools in 1967 had something like Idea Forum floating around. My high school used to have some sort of "hippyish" history curriculum, but by the time I got there, the only thing really remaining was class names -- Modern World (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation); Revolutionary World (US History up to about 1880); Industrial World (US History from 1880 to as far as the teacher was able to get); and Contemporary World (senior year choice of US Government, Modern Europe, Psychology, and one other thing I can't remember right now.)

Now I have to disengage my brain from him so I can get back to grading. Phew!

I so need chocolate right now. Why have the chocolate fairies forsaken me?