This paper aims to rethink the value of The ignorant schoolmaster as an exercise in the philosophy of education, especially as counterpoised to the way philosophy of education is presently exercised in our institutions. It is a singular story, by which teachers can ask why and for what they teach and, even more meaningfully, they can put into question what they are doing with themselves and with their students each time they enter a classroom. We can take three lessons from this exercise: a) that the most natural, evident and socially accepted pedagogical ends appear to be the most philosophically problematic; b) that only through paradox - through being thrown into the paradoxical mud - we can find some real meaning in education; c) that the only education worthy of the name liberates without liberating. The one who does not allow for the liberation of the others oppresses.
Philosophy of education; Emancipation; Socrates