The Wave

by Todd Strasser

  Christy shook her head. “These can’t be the same kids I have for music.”

  “I’m telling you,” her husband said, “it’s amazing how much more they like you when you make decisions for them.”

  “Sure, it means less work for them. They don’t have to think for themselves,” Christy said. “But now stop reading and clear some of those books away so we can eat.”

  As Ben made room on the kitchen table, Christy set the food out. When Ben stood up Christy thought he was going to help her, but instead he started pacing around the kitchen, deep in thought. Christy went on getting the meal ready, but she too was thinking about The Wave. There was something about it that bothered her, something about the tone of her husband’s voice when he spoke about his class—as if they were now better students than the rest of the school. As she sat down at the table she said, “How far do you plan to push this, Ben?”

  “I don’t know,” Ross answered. “But I think it could be fascinating to see.”

  Christy watched her husband pace around the kitchen, lost in thought. “Why don’t you sit down?” she said. “Your egg foo yung’s going to get cold.”

  “You know,” her husband said as he came to the table and sat down, “the funny thing is, I feel myself getting caught up in it too. It’s contagious.”

  Christy nodded. That was obvious. “Maybe you’re becoming a guinea pig in your own experiment,” she said. Although she made it sound like a joke, she was hoping he’d take it as a warning.

  CHAPTER 8

  Both David and Laurie lived within walking distance of Gordon High. David’s route didn’t necessarily lead past Laurie’s house, but ever since tenth grade he’d always gone out of his way. When he first noticed her, as a sophomore, he used to walk down her street on the way to school every morning, hoping that he would pass her house just as she was leaving for school. At first he managed to run into her only about once a week. But as the weeks passed and they got to know each other, he began to catch her more frequently until, by the spring, they walked together almost every day. For a long time David thought this was just a matter of luck and good timing. It never occurred to him that from the beginning Laurie had waited at her window, watching for him. At first she had only pretended to “run into” him once a week. Later she “ran into” him more often.

  When David picked Laurie up to walk with her to school the next morning, he was bursting with brainstorms. “I’m telling you, Laurie,” he said as they walked along a sidewalk toward school. “This is just what the football team needs.”

  “What the football team needs,” Laurie told him, “is a quarterback who can pass, a running back who doesn’t fumble, a couple of linebackers who aren’t afraid to tackle, an end who—”

  “Stop it,” David said irritably. “I’m serious. I got the team into it yesterday. Brian and Eric helped me. The guys really responded to it. I mean, it’s not like we improved in only one practice, but I could feel it. I could really feel the team spirit. Even Coach Schiller was impressed. He said we were like a new team.”

  “My mother says it sounds like brainwashing to her,” Laurie said.

  “What?”

  “She says Mr. Ross is manipulating us.”

  “She’s crazy,” David said. “How could she know? And besides, what do you care what your mother says? You know she worries about everything.”

  “I didn’t say I agreed with her,” Laurie said.

  “Well, you didn’t say you disagreed with her either,” David said.

  “I was just telling you what she said,” Laurie replied.

  David wouldn’t let it drop. “How does she know, anyway? She can’t possibly understand what The Wave is about unless she’s been in class to see it work. Parents always think they know everything!”

  Laurie suddenly felt an urge to disagree with him, but she restrained herself. She didn’t want to start a fight with David over something so petty. She hated it when they quarreled. Besides, for all she knew, The Wave might be just what the football team needed. They certainly needed something. She decided to change the subject. “Did you find help for calculus?”

  David shrugged. “Naw, the only kids who know anything are in my class.”

  “So why not ask one of them?”

  “No way,” David said. “I don’t want any of them to know I’m having trouble.”

  “Why not?” Laurie asked. “I’m sure someone would help you.”

  “Of course they would,” David said. “But I don’t want their help.”

  Laurie sighed. It was true that lots of kids at school were competitive about grades and class standing. But few took it as far as David did. “Well,” she said, “I know Amy didn’t say anything at lunch, but if you can’t find anyone else she could probably help you.”

  “Amy?”

  “She’s incredibly smart in math,” Laurie explained. “I bet you could give her your problem and she’d have it figured out in ten minutes.”

  “But I asked her at lunch,” David said.

  “She was just being shy,” Laurie said. “I think she likes Brian and she just doesn’t want to intimidate him by seeming too brainy.”

  David laughed. “I don’t think she has to worry, Laurie. The only way she could intimidate him was if she weighed two hundred pounds and wore a Clarkstown uniform.”

  When the students arrived in class that day, there was a large poster in the back of the room with a blue wave symbol on it. They found Mr. Ross dressed differently than usual. Where before he’d come to class in casual clothes, today he wore a blue suit, white shirt, and a tie. The students went quickly to their seats as their teacher walked up and down the aisles passing out small yellow cards.

  Brad nudged Laurie. “It’s not time for report cards,” he whispered.

  Laurie stared at the card she’d received. “It’s a Wave membership card,” she whispered back.

  “What?” Brad hissed.

  “All right,” Mr. Ross slapped his hands together loudly. “No talking.”

  Brad sat up straight in his seat. But Laurie understood his surprise. Membership cards? It must have been a joke. Meanwhile, Mr. Ross had finished distributing the cards and stood in the front of the room.

  “Now you will all have membership cards,” Mr. Ross announced. “If you turn them over you will find that some of them have been marked with a red X. If you have a red X you are to be a monitor, and you will report directly to me any members of The Wave who do not obey our rules.”

  Around the room students were scrutinizing their cards and turning them over to see if they had a red X. Those who had them, like Robert and Brian, were smiling. Those who didn’t, like Laurie, seemed less pleased.

  Laurie raised her hand.

  “Yes, Laurie,” Ben said.

  “Uh, what’s the point of this?” Laurie asked.

  There was a silence around the room and Ben did not answer right away. Then he said, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  “Oh, right.” Laurie got up and stood next to her desk. “Mr. Ross, what’s the point of these cards?”

  Ben had expected someone to question him on the cards. The reason for them would not be apparent immediately. For now he said, “It’s just an example of how a group might monitor itself.”

  Laurie had no other questions, so Ben turned to the blackboard and added another word to “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community.” Today’s word was “Action.”

  “Now that we understand Discipline and Community,” he told the class, “Action is our next lesson. Ultimately, discipline and community are meaningless without action. Discipline gives you the right to action. A disciplined group with a goal can take action to achieve it. They must take action to achieve it. Class, do you believe in The Wave?”

  There was a split-second hesitation, and then the class rose in unison and answered in what seemed like a single voice. “Mr. Ross, yes!”

  Mr. Ross nodded. “Then you must take action! Nev
er be afraid to act on what you believe. As The Wave you must act together like a well-oiled machine. Through hard work and allegiance to each other, you will learn faster and accomplish more. But only if you support one another, and only if you work together and obey the rules, can you ensure the success of The Wave.”

  As he spoke, the class members stood beside their desks at attention. Laurie Saunders stood with them, but she did not feel the high energy and unity she’d felt on previous days. In fact, today there was something about the class, something about their singlemindedness and absolute obedience to Mr. Ross that she would almost describe as creepy.

  “Be seated,” Mr. Ross ordered, and instantly the class sat. Their teacher continued his lesson. “When we first began The Wave a few days ago I felt that some of you were actually competing to give the right answers and to be better members than others. From now on I want this to end. You are not competing against each other, you are working together for a common cause. You must conceive of yourselves as a team, a team of which you are all members. Remember, in The Wave you are all equals. No one is more important or more popular than anyone else and no one is to be excluded from the group. Community means equality within the group.

  “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 to them.”

  David smiled as Eric looked over at him and winked. This was what he’d needed to hear. There was nothing wrong with turning other kids on to The Wave. It was for the good of everybody. Especially the football team.

  Mr. Ross had concluded his talk on The Wave. He intended to spend the rest of the period reviewing the assignment he’d given the class the night before. But suddenly a student named George Snyder was raising his hand.

  “Yes, George.”

  George sprang from his seat to attention by his desk. “Mr. Ross, for the first time I feel like I’m part of something,” he announced. “Something great.”

  Around the room, startled students stared at George. Feeling the eyes of the class upon him, George began to sink back into his chair. But then Robert suddenly stood.

  “Mr. Ross,” he said proudly, “I know just how George feels. It’s like being born again.”

  No sooner had he returned to his seat than Amy stood. “George’s right, Mr. Ross. I feel the same way.”

  David was pleased. He knew that what George had done was corny, but then Robert and Amy had done it too, just so George wouldn’t feel foolish and alone. That’s what was good about The Wave. They supported each other. Now he stood up and said, “Mr. Ross, I’m proud of The Wave.”

  This sudden outburst of testimonials surprised Ben. He was determined to get on to the day’s classwork, but suddenly he knew he had to go along with the class a little longer. Almost subconsciously he sensed how much they wanted him to lead them, and it was something he felt he could not deny.

  “Our salute!” he ordered. Around the room students jumped to attention beside their desks and gave The Wave salute. The mottos followed: “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action!”

  Mr. Ross was picking up his class notes when the students burst forth again, this time giving the salute and chanting their motto without prompting. Then silence fell over the room. Mr. Ross gazed at the students in wonderment. The Wave was no longer just an idea or a game. It was a living movement in his students. They were The Wave now, and Ben realized that they could act on their own without him if they wanted. That thought could have been frightening, but Ben was confident that he had control as their leader. The experiment was simply becoming much more interesting.

  At lunch that day all The Wave members who were in the cafeteria sat at a single long table. Brian, Brad, Amy, Laurie, and David were there. At first Robert Billings seemed tentative about joining them, but when David saw him he insisted he sit at the table, telling him they were all part of The Wave now.

  Most of the kids were raving about what was going on in Mr. Ross’s class, and Laurie really had no reason to argue with them. But still she felt odd—all that saluting and chanting. Finally, during a pause in the conversation, she said, “Does anyone feel kind of strange about this?”

  David turned to her. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know,” Laurie said. “But doesn’t it feel a little weird?”

  “It’s just so different,” Amy told her. “That’s why it feels weird.”

  “Yeah,” Brad said. “It’s like there’s no in-crowd anymore. Man, the thing that bugs me the most about school sometimes is all these little cliques. I’m tired of feeling like every day’s a big popularity contest. That’s what’s so great about The Wave. You don’t have to worry about how popular you are. We’re all equal. We’re all part of the same community.”

  “Do you think everyone likes that?” Laurie asked.

  “Do you know anyone who doesn’t?” David asked.

  Laurie felt her face grow flushed. “Well, I’m not sure I do.”

  Suddenly Brian pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to Laurie. “Hey, don’t forget,” he said. He was holding up his Wave membership card with the red X on the back.

  “Forget what?” Laurie asked.

  “You know,” Brian said. “What Mr. Ross said about reporting anyone who breaks the rules.”

  Laurie was shocked. Brian really couldn’t be serious, could he? Now Brian started to grin, and she relaxed.

  “Besides,” David said. “Laurie isn’t breaking any rule.”

  “If she was really against The Wave she would be,” Robert said.

  The rest of the table became silent, surprised that Robert had said anything. Some of them weren’t even used to hearing his voice, he usually said so little.

  “What I mean is,” Robert said nervously, “the whole idea of The Wave is that the people in it have to support it. If we’re really a community, we all have to agree.”

  Laurie was about to say something, but she stopped herself. It was The Wave that had given Robert the courage to sit at the table with them and to join in the conversation. If she argued against The Wave now, she would really be implying that Robert should go sit by himself again and not be part of their “community.”

  Brad patted Robert on his back. “Hey, I’m glad you joined us,” he said.

  Robert blushed and then turned to David. “Did he stick anything on my back?” he asked. Everyone at the table laughed.

  CHAPTER 9

  Ben Ross wasn’t quite sure what to make of The Wave. What had begun as a simple history experiment had become a fad that was spreading outside his classroom. As a result, some unexpected things had started to occur. For one, the size of his daily history class was beginning to expand as students from free periods, study halls, and lunch came to be part of The Wave. The recruiting of more students for The Wave had apparently been far more successful than he had ever expected. So successful, in fact, that Ben began to suspect that some students were cutting other classes to sit in on his.

  Remarkably enough, though, even with the larger class size and the students’ insistence on practicing the salute and motto, the class was not falling behind. If anything, they were covering their assigned lessons even faster than usual. Using the rapid question and answer style that The Wave had inspired, they had quickly covered Japan’s entrance into World War Two. Ben noticed a marked improvement in preparation for class and in class participation, but he also noticed that there was less thinking behind the preparation. His students could glibly spit back answers as if by rote, but there was no analysis, no questioning on their part. In a way he could not fault them, because he himself had introduced them to the ways of The Wave. It was just another unexpected development in the experiment.

  Ben reasoned that the students realized that to neglect their studies would be detrimental to The Wave. The only way they could have time to spend on The Wave was to be so wel
l prepared that they only needed half the regular class to cover their assigned lessons. But he wasn’t certain this was something to be pleased about. The class’s homework assignments had improved, but rather than long, thoughtful answers, they wrote short ones. On a multiple choice test they might all do well, but Ben had his doubts about how they’d do on an exam consisting of essays.

  To add to the interesting developments in his experiment was a report he’d heard that David Collins and his friends Eric and Brian had successfully infused The Wave into the school’s football team. Over the years, Norm Schiller, the biology teacher who also coached the school’s football team, had become so soured by wisecracks about the team’s continual losses that during football season he practically went months without speaking to another teacher. But that morning in the faculty lounge Norm had actually thanked him for introducing The Wave to his students. Would wonders never cease?

  On his own, Ben had tried to find out what it was that attracted students to The Wave. Some of those he asked said it was just something new and different, like any fad. Others said they liked the democracy of it—the fact that they were all equals now. It pleased Ross to hear that answer. He enjoyed thinking that he had helped break down the petty popularity contests and cliques that he felt often preoccupied too much of his students’ thinking and energy. A few students even said they thought the idea of increased discipline was good for them. That had surprised Ben. Over the years, discipline had become an increasingly personal responsibility. If the students didn’t do it themselves, their teachers were less and less inclined to step in. Maybe this was a mistake, Ben thought. Perhaps one of the results of his experiment would be a general rebirth of school discipline. He even day-dreamed about a story in the education section of Time magazine: Discipline Returns to the Classroom: Teacher Makes Startling Discovery.

  Laurie Saunders sat on a desk in the school publications office, chewing on the end of a pen. Various members of The Gordon Grapevine staff sat on desks around her, biting their nails or chewing gum. Alex Cooper was wearing his Sony radio and was bopping to the music through his earphones. Another reporter was wearing roller skates. This was The Grapevine’s excuse for a weekly editorial meeting.