The ignorant schoolmaster Book

This is, quite literally, one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. Ranciere basically tells the story of one Joseph Jacotot, a professor who, during the restoration in early 19th century France was forced to leave the country, wound up in Flanders, and found himself asked to teach local students the French language, which they did not know. Unfortunately, Jacotot himself knew no Flemish and was without a common language with his students. Not to be dissuaded, he left his students with a recently published bilingual edition of a work of French literature and advised his students to go through it, simply relating the French they didn't know to the Flemish they did, and report back to him on their progress in a few months. To his utmost surprise, all of his students obtained fluency in French in a few months time with little more than his injunction to work it out themselves.

This experience left Jacotot with the impression that all human intelligences are equal, and that anyone is capable of teaching anything at all, even subjects the teacher does not him/herself know. Jacotot set up an experiemtal school in Louvain and most of the book involves Ranciere recounting the various results and observations made on the basis of this experiment at intellectual emancipation, and its eventual reception by the wider society and the educational establishment.

This book is not without its flaws--the biggest one being Ranciere's apoliticism, his assertion that intellectual emancipation is a personal endeavor and not in any way the basis of a political movement. But his rigorous and devoted effort to proclaim that equality is a principle to start from whose consequences must be verified and practiced, and not a result to be obtained in some indefinitely postponed future, is an example and an inspiration. Read this book: it will not fail to inspire you with the idea that you are capable of understanding anything you want.