Education and Liberty

This article on Mises.org (HT: Blake Stephenson) gives an example of how the negative feedback loops inherent in large, centrally directed bureaucracies stifle the use of judgment, local knowledge and initiative.

The article illustrates why the modern state should not be in charge of public education. But I think it also suggests that there are problems that exist in all collective human endeavors that educators, social scientist and entrepreneurs need to try to overcome.

Why can’t we all “learn” from history? Why don’t organizations learn?

Experience teaches. While individuals can clearly be very resilient to recognizing the lessons of their experience, when the consequences of their actions fall squarely on them, it is difficult for them to be completely immune to the implications reality has for their thinking and behavior. Even when we are resistant to such lessons, we are bothered by conscience and failure. Reality provides a kind of ‘control’ for our errors. Yet peoples, governments and organizations seem to be remarkably oblivious to lessons which can be drawn from their past. They repeatedly take the same actions that are detrimental to their purposes. They fail to draw conclusions about the consequences of their collective behaviors and they are slow, if not entirely resistant, to making use of innovations suggested by the experience of their members.

One of the reasons for this is that there is a fundamental epistemological difference between the natural and social sciences. Strictly speaking, experiments cannot be made in the social arena because social structures and relationships are far too complex to isolate one-to-one causal connections between actions and results. In the social realm, every moment is always different from the one before it. History never repeats itself.

For these reasons, irreducible judgment and understanding (verstehen) are essential. We can learn by reading history, however. We can practice exercising our judgment about social dynamics by comparing the considered judgments other individuals have made about particular historical situations in the past. This is practice in developing and considering likely stories about social cause and effect. We can also learn from economics, which tries to uncover the abstract and timeless principles of human actions.

The difference between the learning that occurs in individuals about the immediate effects of their actions and the “learning” of group is that the composite results of the actions of individuals is not immediate and cannot be directly observed. There are unintended and unobserved results of our behaviors that are beyond our conscious recognition and control. Social science studies the results of human action but not of human design. According to Frederick Hayek the “economic problem”–which is to say the fundamental social problem–is the need for agents’ actions to be coordinated to make use of the knowledge (and learning) available to all of those agents separately. In order to make use of dispersed knowledge, we need experimentation, judgment and risk-taking on the part of diverse individuals and some form of feedback that translates individual learning into a form that will tend guide the actions of others.

In the nexus of voluntary exchange (the “market”), the price system and the institutions of private property help to coordinate the knowledge and decisions of all the agents involved. In The Use of Knowledge in Society, The Creative Powers of a Free Civilization and Competition as a Discovery Procedure, Hayek describes how certain institutions tend to make use of fortuitous discoveries and local knowledge for the mutual benefit of agents in that nexus of exchange.

Strictly speaking, groups of individuals do not learn; concomitantly, institutions cannot learn. But social structures can be so constituted that they allow individuals to make use of the knowledge and learning of the other individuals in that group.

Figuring out how to order all of our collective affairs in such a way that optimizes the use of the knowledge of the members of a group who do not possess that knowledge themselves is an exciting task for those who care about learning and progress.

I ran across a piece of news-gossip about the iPad recently that I thought was interesting. The story is that Apple’s iPad iBooks store will carry the entire Gutenberg Project for free download. {Story found here} For those of you who don’t know what Gutenberg Project it is a user-content-generated website that has over 30,000 electronic books for free download, essentially anything of note that is public domain has been converted and entered into their database. All of these books will now be part of the Apple catalog. That is awesome.

I am fascinated by technology. I love the fact that I am a participant and observer of one of the greatest ages in human history: The Technology Age.

The potential {and the actual} is pretty fantastic. I see technology as the freedom of information, the opportunity for collaboration, cooperation, competition… as almost instant market feedback, as crowd-sourcing, technology taps the infinite resources of local knowledge and leverages it to be useful to millions.

The educational opportunities are what fascinate me the most, and I will be posting more about it. I have been reading an amazing book on the history of self education entitled The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: From Self-Improvement to Adult Education in America, 1750-1990 by Joseph Kett. My interest in liberal arts education dovetails with my research in mutual aid societies in this book. For hundreds of years Americans have been hungry for ways to improve themselves, for ways to create micro-communities of learners. Technology is making that more and more possible. Wikipedia, About.com, Suite101, Instructables and countless blogs are the modern versions of yesteryears literary societies, the cultural sources of self improvement.

One of the women in my education masters program came up with the following advertisement to recruit secondary teachers after reading Phil Gang’s Rethinking Education.  She did it with a little tongue and cheek, but frankly, it’s spot on!

“Secondary level teacher of ……………required, must have high self esteem, be intelligent, have a full extra curricula life, be open minded, trustworthy, friendly, nice and have a good sense of humor.

Applicant must have empathy and respect for students, knowledge of developmental psychology, be versatile, flexible, and be able to facilitate and mediate in the classroom. They must have good listening skills, a belief in young people, and faith in the future of mankind.”

How amazing.  She also expressed (and we at Education and Liberty all agree) that a “teacher” must be a life long learner.  She shared this great link by an organizational trouble-shooter, Kevin Eikenberry, about the qualities of a life long learner.   The article talks about how we are all really in the business of learning, what that means, and how to get better at it.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage… Unless we can make the philosophic foundations of a free society once more a living intellectual issue, and its implementation a task which challenges the ingenuity and imagination of our liveliest minds, the prospects of freedom are indeed dark. But if we can regain that belief in power of ideas which was the mark of [classical] liberalism at its best, the battle is not lost. ~F.A. Hayek, Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, p194

If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their
natural goodness will shine forth. ~Maria Montessori

There are certain moments in my life where I feel like the world is telling me something. Times where so many of the conversations I have , ideas I am thinking about and articles I read converge, that I can’t help but listen. This is one of those moments.

We all know that how we educate children needs to change, that the public school system is not  “working”. (I go further, and believe that it is inherently incapable of providing a truly valuable education that respects the individuality of the child.)

Most of the discussion of education has been negative statements, statements of what we don’t want. So what is the vision? What do we want out of education? What would be the very best outcome for society?

Now I don’t presume to know the Answer, but I will propose an answer (and I am curious to hear what you think!): We want innovators. We want creative problem solvers, critical thinkers. That is where the continued progress and prosperity lies. We want people who see a problem, and are empowered to fix it, or at least give it an honest try. We want people who see a need, and want to fulfill it. We want entrepreneurs. This call is universal. It goes beyond industry and sector, it reaches the very source of prosperity for all people, in all countries. A country of inspired innovators is a country of prosperous, perhaps even happy, people. The wonderful Maria Montessori said in chapter one of her book, The Absorbent Mind, “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” The next question becomes what is the best way to develop the habits and insights of those “makers of men.” How do we inspire that wonderful quality of “tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”? Again, I do not presume to know the Answer. It is and always will be an evolving process but I have some ideas…

My current work is inspiring. I am honored to be in the company of a man working towards this: my boss, Jeff Sandefer, is an entrepreneur who, in addition to his many other contributions towards the cause of liberty, is making huge strides in how we approach higher education. The Pope Center for Higher Education put out an excellent article today regarding his prediction of the collapse of the US higher education system. As I work with him to develop a primary school curriculum we are making progress towards changing the very model of elementary education. Exciting times.

Here you will find an excellent speech that he gave on education.

Rachel’s last post about music and the market reminded me of this most fabulous article by Leonard E. Read called “The Miraculous Market.”

Leonard Read was one of the greatest advocates for peace and human freedom.  His advocacy for these principles was founded on a deep gratitude for human beings and the creativity they express.  Read’s works are a great example of what Maria Montessori believed should be an integral part of education: inspiring gratitude for human beings and what they have achieved through social cooperation.  In To Educate the Human Potential, she writes:

It is hoped that when this sentiment of love for all subjects can be aroused in children, people in general will become more human, and brutal wars will come to an end. But a love for science and art, and all that mankind has created, will not suffice to make men and women love one another. To love a beautiful sunset, or look with wonder on a tiny insect, does not necessarily awaken a greater feeling of affection towards humanity, nor does a love for art in a man beget a love for his neighbour. What is very necessary is that the individual from the earliest years should be placed in relation with humanity.  There is no love in our hearts for the human beings from whom we have received, and are receiving so much in bread and clothing, and numerous inventions for our benefit.  We take and enjoy all that is done for us without gratitude, like atheists who withhold their gratitude and love from God.  Perhaps we teach the child to thank God and pray to Him, but not to thank humanity, God’s prime agent in creation; we give no thought to the men and women who daily give their lives that we may live more richly….Every achievement has come by the sacrifice of the sacrifice of someone now dead….

Let us in education ever call the attention of children to the hosts of men and women who are hidden from the light of fame, so kindling a love of humanity; not the vague and enaemic sentiment preached today as brotherhood, nor the political sentiment that the working classes should be redeemed and uplifted….