Will the disciple know more?

In the centre of the engraving, a donkey is teaching several smaller donkeys to read. The teacher is seated on the ground, wearing a cap that covers his ears and wearing a knotted tie and sleeves with frilly cuffs. Between his paws he holds an open book with four "A's". In one of his hooves he holds a stick with which to impose his discipline if necessary. In front of the book, a pupil is trying to learn the lesson with three other pupils in the background, one of whom seems to be braying to repeat the letters. The animal in the foreground is also dressed in human clothing and raises a paw that rests on the page.

Goya insists in this picture, as an enlightened man, on the importance of education as the foundation for a better society and criticises the lack of training that teachers often had. He uses the figure of the donkey to ridicule some teachers who, because of their training, could never achieve good results.

Edith Helman points out the relationship between this print and the novel by José Francisco de Isla de la Torre y Rojo (Vidanes, León, 1703-Bologna, 1781),  History of the Famous Preacher Fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes. This text tells the story of Gerundio, born in the town of Campazas in León and the son of a wealthy farmer, who attended a school where his own teacher was an ignoramus.

This engraving inaugurates in the series of The Caprices what have come to be known as "asnerías", a compact group of prints which ends in Capricho no. 42, You Who Cannot. They feature the donkey, a figure that forms part of Goya's iconography and which the painter used to refer to stupidity and ignorance. It is likely that Goya was aware of the presence of this animal in the writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 1466-Basel, 1536) or Andrea Alciato (Alzano, Milan, 1492-Pavía, 1550), which may have served as a source of inspiration.