The Ignorant Teacher

This book can be read in different ways. First and foremost, it is the story of Joseph Giacotto, a French schoolteacher in exile, who in 1818 discovered a new method of teaching—and caused panic throughout the scientific community of Europe.

Giacotto did not know the Flemish language but found that he could teach Flemish students who did not speak French in French. Thus, he concluded that knowledge as such is not necessary for teaching, and explanation is not a universal method of learning. The results of this unusual pedagogical experiment led Giacotto to acknowledge that all people are equally intelligent. Based on this postulate, he developed a philosophy and method of “intellectual emancipation,” allowing, for example, illiterate parents to teach their children reading themselves. The book is dedicated to the description and analysis of Giacotto's method, its influence on the understanding of what the process of learning is, as well as explaining why, freeing ourselves from the yoke and hierarchy of intellect, we gain freedom and the opportunity to finally learn something new.