Man is the catastrophe of the cosmos. This insight prompts Theodor Ballauff to engage in deeper reflection on human education. We must read Ballauff's pedagogy as a radical critique of modern educational theory. It arises from humanity's bias of presupposing and seeking itself as a being. In a historical contemplation that traces back to Parmenides and Plato, he arrives at the counter-thesis: Man does not have a self to seek like a being; rather, he is himself when he allows himself to belong to thought and truth. With this counter-thesis, Ballauff establishes a fundamentally different pedagogical system. Its guiding idea is the concept of humanity in selfless responsibility for the truth. His counter-thesis revolutionizes traditional educational theories and common didactic and school theoretical concepts with their practical consequences, and it suspends the often distorted images of the teacher that are so prevalent today.