This is the 23 first minutes of the movie
The Wave about a teacher who tries to organize his class in a fashion inspired by the way Nazi germany was run, the rest of the movie is also available at YouTube but I'm the most interested in the first part of the movie in this thread.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BVRXXbU-z7U
My class watched this movie in ninth grade, and it is probably because I seem like one of the characters in it that I was occasionally called a nazi, but anyway, do you think that some aspects of this kind of education would be usefull for at least some people on the autistic spectrum?
Notable quotes from the movie:
"They like me to make decisions for them" and
"It was as if they wanted to become disciplined" -Mr. Ross, the teacher
"Mr. Ross, this is the first time I feel part of something greater than myself" -Robert, "Naziboy"
The Wave experiment certainly opens up some interesting questions and insights about the human mind. I've always found it fascinating from a psychology POV.
As far as your question goes, I don't think it really is a good way to educate anyone. The reason it was such a strong atraction for Robert, was because following rules was something he could be good at- he finally gained acceptance as part of a group. But of course, there are many other ways to ensure that a group accepts people it wouldn't otherwise, so that doesn't make the Wave a good way to teach kids like Robert. You sacrifice too much in exchange for too little, and it's not the only way to achieve the good things.
There's a lot that's necesary to keep in mind when educating autistics. The very first thing is that your education plan is going to have to be tailor-made for each kid- no two autistics are the same, and they do not all learn the same ways. So a more structured environment will be ideal for some autistics, but for others a more flexible style will be best.
One thing I notice about the wave is that it begins with a class that is at least partly lazy and rude. I have to wonder how different it would be at my school, which already emphasizies individuality, and where all the students are much more respectful and engaged than in other highschools. I doubt it would work as well.
"do you think that some aspects of this kind of education would be usefull for at least some people on the autistic spectrum?"
In the short term, maybe.
I personally think that many schools are already run as a communist bureaucracy. Look at school chants, compulsary school sports, compulsary assemblies, the use of the word "community" and "family" in school speeches (sometimes to oppress morality and democracy out of situations), school uniform, general school "pride". I mean my school makes chanting compulsary. Thats like making nationalism compulsary in my perspective.
It may be alright if the system (at my school) didn't suppress homosexuality and well most other things that don't fit the socioeconomical norm (I go to a unisex private school), but it does, therefore I will never ever feel any school pride.
I personally do best with an odd mixture of extreme structure and extreme flexibility. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, but I need structure for tasks, but flexibility for what sources I read from and how I connect various topics.
For my math independent study, I decide to study given topics in math, but then I create detailed lists of the sub-topics covered in each book, and when to cover them. Even if I don't learn that the optimal rate I plan for, it helps to have that extremely detailed plain.