JACOTOT, zba.'kea,V, JEAN JOSEPH (1770 1841). The originator of a 'universal' method in education, born at Dijon, France, in 1770. He turned his attention at first to philology, and after having studied that subject for some time became a teacher of the classic languages in his native town. Subsequently he took up the study of law and became an attorney. In 1792 he en tered the army and rose to the rank of captain of artillery: he was then made secretary to the Minister of War, and finally a substitute director and professor of mathematics at the Polytechnic school in Paris. In 1815 he went to Brussels, and three years later accepted the position of professor of French language and literature at the University of Louvain. In 1827 he became a director of the advanced military school in that city. He returned to France in I S30, and died in Paris.
His system of universal instruction was em pirical. propounded in general rules which are unintelligible without his own explanation. It consists in directing the student's exertion to particular subjects. encouraging and exciting him in every possible manner to make use of his men tal powers. The teacher is not to become an expounder, but after setting the student on the right track, is to leave him to explain away his own difficulties. His ideas were an outgrowth of his own intellectual development and of his experience at Louvain. where he. though French.
and understanding no Flemish, taught the Flem ish boys by books having French and Flemish in parallel columns. largely through one hook. the Mentaque. There he saw that the pupils learned, though he did not teach them. This plan was applied to other subjects, with the idea that one could teach all subjects, even those of which he might have no knowledge himself. There were four steps insisted upon in the process of learn ing: First, learn: second. repeat: third. reflect : fourth, verify. His famous maxims. "Pupils must learn something and refer to that all the rest," and "All is in all," meant that all things in nature are united in one great whole, the of which may be acquired through any of its parts. His ideas are empirical ap proaches to the ideas of concentration. interest. etc., of Ilerbart. though expressed in exaggerated or paradoxical form. His method of language teaching is quite similar to the popular plans of Hamilton and of 011endorf.
Jaeotot expounded his ideas in Enseignement unirersel (1522). and in the Journal de l'Eman cipation Intellectuelle. Others of his works are Musique. (-Tessin et printure (1S241 and matiques (1S251. For his life and works. con sult: Quick. Educational Reformers (London, DIGS) : and his English disciple Payne. Lectures on the History of Education (London, 1592).