School Experiment, I Changed the Rules and Won
My teacher called me a “cheat.”
I must have been around nine years old when I took part in what was classed a social experiment; it took place in school with a class of about thirty children; it was a simple game of persuasion and negotiation.
Each child had an envelope, and inside were different coloured cards; each card represented a monetary figure, and the idea was that each child started in a “class group”.
The groups were “Rich”, “Common”, and “Poor”; these represented the different “classes” in life. So when we opened our envelopes, we had to add up the colours/monetary value, then go and stand in the corner of the room that represented the “class” we had been assigned.
I started in the “Poor Class”, in the fourth corner of the room, there was a “marketplace” we could go there ten times and try and persuade/negotiate to swap our cards to make more people clime the “Class” ladder.
It seemed apparent to me at the start that the “Rich” would stay “Rich”, the “Poor” may remain “Poor”, and the “Common” people may fluctuate each class but remain mostly “common”.
Now, after each market had taken place, the “Rich” could make or change any rule they wanted, except moving people to a “class” when their cards did not total the amount required to be in that class.
Simple? Well, not for a nine-year-old; I guess I may be ahead of my years because I found a solution; the teacher was not happy and called me a “cheat” I was adamant that I had followed the rules!!!
As I had predicted, the game did not have many movers or climbers, one of my friends, Jody, persuaded people to help him climb to the “Rich Class” with the promise that he had a solution to make us all “Rich”.
When he reached the top, he announced that he did not have any ideas but thanked everyone for helping him climb the “Class” ladder. I knew this would make it harder for me at the marketplace.
I had to give away my dinner money, some of my football stickers and my bar of chocolate in exchange for different colour cards that would help me reach the “Rich Class”, and I managed this on the tenth and last marketplace.
I was not going to be a Jody and laugh when I reached the top, I wanted to help the others, and I thought that I had a plan to do so; I looked around and spoke to my fellow “Rich” friends, some of them laughed, Jody was my only real supporter.
The teacher asked what we would do on this last turn, so with no other ideas on the table, I stood up to announce my master plan, but would it work?
I announced that every card would triple in value, which meant that every player would automatically climb the ladder into the “Rich Class.” My teacher was angry and said, “you cannot do that; it is cheating, “I said people cannot move unless their cards add up to the “Rich Class” value.
“But sir”, I protested, “I changed the card's value, and there are no rules against that.”
The experiment organiser stepped and congratulated me on what I had done; this was supposed to be a foolproof experiment where the only winners were the negotiators.
I do not class myself as an entrepreneur but as an opportunist; when asked if the “Glass was half empty or half full”, my response was “, Neither; it is an opportunity to take a drink.”
What are your thoughts? Did I cheat? What do you think of the teacher's and organisers' reactions? Let me know in the comments section below.
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