Back to class catalog

Course

Computational Manners

A nontraditional systems course where students study manners, protocol, awkward interactions, and group behavior as coordination problems.

This course

  • Students use self-paced work to explore manners, protocol, queues, defaults, scheduling, risk, and social coordination
  • Weekly live online events build on that work with scenarios, discussion, activities, and teacher-led group analysis
  • Examples can include court protocol, household batching, legal or medical intake, military or industrial systems, and everyday awkward conversations
  • Students ask which shared patterns help, which break down, and what happens when only some people follow them

What families should know

  • This is not a traditional etiquette class and not a standard coding class either
  • It uses computing ideas like queues, caching, heuristics, collision avoidance, cascading effects, and efficiency to understand human behavior
  • Students also practice seeing why manners and self-control can make life easier for a group
  • It pairs naturally with civics, software, history, or other systems-focused courses

Registration

Join the interest list for updates about when Computational Manners is running again.