Lesson Plan (2010)

Steve Coniglio: Self

Quotes 

• Philip Carr Neel : Ron would come to work in just a white shirt and oftentimes without a tie, and roll up his sleeves.

  Joel Amkraut : He was doing innovative things at the time too. He was bringing guests to the class, very interesting, controversial guests: he brought in a communist, he brought in a Klansman, he brought in a member of the American Nazi Party to talk about white supremacy.

  Alyssa Hess : All the way through he was presenting different sides of every question. I remember when we were studied about Vietnam, he made us write 10 arguments for, 10 arguments against,

  Steve Coniglio : He didn't try to be above you, I'd say that Ron Jones had a capacity to teach WITH you.

  Russel Mulock : When he said he did simulations, I realized that's a lot of what he lived for, he liked creating the experience of being there.

  Alyssa Hess : You know, I feel like he was trying to look at the whole picture, always, and try to get us to look at the whole picture, always, with a lot of heart and a lot of passion.

  Jo Ann Wood : It was always exciting, one day you'd go in and the desks would be in a row, and then the next they'd come in and be all spread all over the room.

• Philip Carr Neel : And then Mr. Jones had us sit at attention to wait for the party leader and in the front of the room was a television set, you know, probably a 19 inch screen, and he said 'The party leader is going to come on any minute now', and he left the room with it on, it was just snow.

  Steve Coniglio : His bodyguards went out of the room, the reporters went out of the room, and there were all of these people looking at snow on a TV screen, and it was 12 o' clock.

  Mark Hancock : And you're looking around and suddenly, Jones isn't there, and you're beginning to freak out: no guards, no Jones, static on the tube.

  Steve Coniglio : I looked around and all I could see were gray faces, and everybody zombie-like, staring at the screen, waiting for something to happen.

  Mark Hancock : It was like a pressure cooker, and you, we just felt that something was wrong, the TV wasn't working, the teacher wasn't here, the guards were gone, and basically the students were sitting in here alone.

  Steve Coniglio : Everybody looked like they were dead, I just... and... my mind flipped... my mind flipped to... to like... the Jews in the concentration camp, being told they're going to a room to take a shower, doors shutting and then the pellets being dropped from the pipes up above. And I... I... I thought we were trapped. I went into a panic, I stood up and I said 'I'm getting the hell out of here!'

  Mark Hancock : We basically panicked, in my case it was 'Something is very wrong here, I gotta get out of here!'

  Russel Mulock : I remember Steve Coniglio and I, we just ran out.

  Steve Coniglio : And we raced toward the doors, I fully expected it to be locked.

  Mark Hancock : And so I headed out that back door as fast as I could in a panic.

  Steve Coniglio : I tore out of there, I ran down the stairs.

  Wendy Brodie : You've got one foot in the door, one foot out the door, and then all the lights came on.

  Philip Carr Neel : And it was Mr. Jones standing in the back of the room, he'd turned on the lights. And he slowly walked forward to the front of the room, and he looked shaken.

  Ron Jones : I remember this sickening silence in the room, it was almost like a sweating room, it just got hotter and hotter as this particular leader did not appear. And then to release that tension I had the students whisper some of our edicts like 'Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action'. And I remember them getting louder, sitting at attention with their feet flat against the floor, "Strength through discipline, strength through community, BAM badda badda, BAM badda badda". And then I remember this thing flickering as these students waited for this leader to appear, and there was nothing, just this static.

  Philip Carr Neel : Somebody yelled out 'There is no party leader'!

  Ron Jones : At that point I snapped on this visual and it was Hitler, and it was the Holocaust and it was bodies and hollowed eyes, and the horror that we had fallen victim to.

  Philip Carr Neel : And he sat in the chair and just said 'What I have witnessed for the last week and a half', or week, whatever it was, 'What I have witnessed has really sickened me'.

  Ron Jones : Because we are no better or worse than the Germans, we are just like them.