Jacotot (1770–1840)

French educationist. He was the inventor of the ‘universal method’ of education. He was successively a soldier, military secretary, and holder of various professorial chairs. It was while at the University of Louvain that he applied his method of ‘universal instruction’. The principle of his system is that the mental capacities of all men are equal, and he expounded his views in Enseignement Universel/Universal Instruction (1823). Jacotot was born in Dijon, France.