Hayek and Hero Teachers

Friedrich Hayek argued that social constructs such as markets, language, the legal system, etc., were evolved processes derived from collective experience. While Hayek accepted that there were experts who harbored knowledge in specialized fields, he believed that the most important knowledge in society was widely dispersed among the population. Accordingly, no small group of central planners could ever hope to duplicate the hundreds of millions of decisions necessary to produce a top-down economic outcome superior to the one produced by a bottom-up market system.

Rather than the enlightened advice of a few elites, Hayek believed that a functioning society depended more on the distilled experience of the many which could be codified into rules of behavior. This collective knowledge is transmitted socially in largely inarticulate form leading to a “spontaneous order.” Competition among institutions results in the survival of cultural traits and behaviors that “work” even if the winners or losers never fully understand why they worked. To quote Hayek, there is “more ‘intelligence’ incorporated in the system of rules of conduct than in man’s thoughts about his surroundings.”

The inferior outcome resulting from intervention in evolved processes is not confined to market systems. For example, some educators and the media have perpetuated the myth of an idealistic hero teacher who enters an inner-city school and is shocked by the educational inadequacies. The hero teacher perseveres and by innovative teaching methods, personal sacrifice and a lot of heart inspires the students to win the state championship in music, mathematics, etc. We have all seen the movie but there is only one problem; to quote Tabarrock in Marginal Revolution “hero teachers are not replicable.” If hero teachers are required to save education then our children are in deep trouble. Fortunately, studies have shown there is a replicable method of teaching based on evolved process that does not require the instructor to be a hero. The method is known as Direct Instruction and employs a carefully constructed teaching script based on rules that rely more on perspiration than inspiration. Predictably, education elites vilify the Direct Instruction method as “rote learning” and instead advocate that every teacher blaze their own educational trail and aspire to hero status.

The myth of the hero teacher is also prevalent in higher education, particularly among universities with cultures that are still mired in their "teachers college" past. T he Direct Instruction script in higher education mean teaching a course that reflects the evolved body of knowledge within the professor's discipline. For students who want to be charmed, entertained or inspired it is cheaper to rent a movie, read a book or go to church.