In between passing times at Muscatine High School, students often stop in the middle of the hall and congregate. The crowd that forms often clogs the hallways making it difficult to get to class on time. These students congregate without any regard to the costs they impose on others. This is the classic externality. To compound the matter more, no one really owns the institution so the hallway becomes overused to the point where all rents have been dissipated. This is the classic tragedy of the commons. The high school administrative team asked students to find solutions for the externality and commons problems. In this blog, I want to explain why I think that students congregate, clog, and over-consume the public good.
Dr. Eric Berne of Transactional Analysis fame, Games People Play, postulates that everyone needs a certain amount of stokes both physical and mental in order to live. Kelley Morgan, a co-worker years ago, used to call these strokes "skin hunger." Skin hunger describes the proximity that students stand to each other, the constant touching, the text messaging, the clogging. Kelley used to say that "You'll find more acceptance in this group than anywhere else." It's no wonder that the most eclectic group of students are found in the hall between classes. Each student in this crowd is rationally seeking to maximize their utility and gain as many strokes as possible. Is it possible that these students are not receiving the stokes they need from teachers? One of the buzz concepts that I hear from our administrative team is that teachers need to build "Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships." When teachers fail to build relationships with students, the students transfer the cost to third-parties by clogging the hall.
Some of the students might have deep emotional problems with relationships. Tyler Cowen in Discover Your Inner Economist, opines that students might be late for class for fear that they will arrive before their friends. These students take the asymmetrical arrival times personally. The students who arrive early will wonder why their friends are late. These students reason, "Did my friend have something more important to do than talk to me? Did my friend abandon me?" So in order to protect their ego, students who clog the artery of the halls, might cling to their peer groups as security. To arrive early without their friend is interpreted as painful rejection. It is therefore rational to remain in the hallway.
Neoclassical economics predicts that individual actors will maximize their utility or pleasure. By waiting in the hallway, many opportunities to gain strokes or utility might arise. Maybe, Juan is waiting for Mary to walk by to ask her for a date. Maybe Juan wants to talk to his friends about a assignment before class or finish eating before going to class. In order to maximize his utility, Juan will wait to the last second before bolting to class. So Juan, and many others, will wait in the hall exerting a cost on innocent third parties.
In order to alieve the congestion problem, property rights must be assigned or a Coase Theorum must be sought. Until someone "owns" the hallway it'll continue to be oversued to the point where marginal benefit equals marginal cost.
Dr. Eric Berne of Transactional Analysis fame, Games People Play, postulates that everyone needs a certain amount of stokes both physical and mental in order to live. Kelley Morgan, a co-worker years ago, used to call these strokes "skin hunger." Skin hunger describes the proximity that students stand to each other, the constant touching, the text messaging, the clogging. Kelley used to say that "You'll find more acceptance in this group than anywhere else." It's no wonder that the most eclectic group of students are found in the hall between classes. Each student in this crowd is rationally seeking to maximize their utility and gain as many strokes as possible. Is it possible that these students are not receiving the stokes they need from teachers? One of the buzz concepts that I hear from our administrative team is that teachers need to build "Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships." When teachers fail to build relationships with students, the students transfer the cost to third-parties by clogging the hall.
Some of the students might have deep emotional problems with relationships. Tyler Cowen in Discover Your Inner Economist, opines that students might be late for class for fear that they will arrive before their friends. These students take the asymmetrical arrival times personally. The students who arrive early will wonder why their friends are late. These students reason, "Did my friend have something more important to do than talk to me? Did my friend abandon me?" So in order to protect their ego, students who clog the artery of the halls, might cling to their peer groups as security. To arrive early without their friend is interpreted as painful rejection. It is therefore rational to remain in the hallway.
Neoclassical economics predicts that individual actors will maximize their utility or pleasure. By waiting in the hallway, many opportunities to gain strokes or utility might arise. Maybe, Juan is waiting for Mary to walk by to ask her for a date. Maybe Juan wants to talk to his friends about a assignment before class or finish eating before going to class. In order to maximize his utility, Juan will wait to the last second before bolting to class. So Juan, and many others, will wait in the hall exerting a cost on innocent third parties.
In order to alieve the congestion problem, property rights must be assigned or a Coase Theorum must be sought. Until someone "owns" the hallway it'll continue to be oversued to the point where marginal benefit equals marginal cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment