The Ignorant Schoolmaster

This book can be read in various ways. First and foremost, it is the story of Joseph Jacotot, a French schoolteacher in exile who, in 1818, discovered a new way of teaching and created panic among the scientific community in Europe.

Jacotot did not speak Flemish but realized that he could teach non-French-speaking Flemish students in French. Thus, he concluded that knowledge as such was not necessary for teaching and that explanation was not a universal method of instruction. The results of this unusual pedagogical experiment forced Jacotot to accept that every person is equally intelligent. Based on this postulate, he developed the philosophy and method of «intellectual emancipation, ” which, for example, allowed illiterate parents to teach their children to read. This book describes and analyzes Jacotot’s method and his influence on how the teaching process is understood and explains why, when we are liberated from the weight and hierarchy of intellect, we have the opportunity to learn something new.