Educationalists are currently engaging with Jacques Ranciere's thought on emancipation and equality. The focus of this paper is on what initiates the process that starts emancipation. With reference to teachers the question is: how do teachers become emancipated? This paper discusses how the teacher's life is made "sensible" and how sense is distributed in her life. Two stories are taken from Ranciere's own work, that of Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Jacotot, that give us an indication of the initiation process of emancipation. Then I will see this in relation to the teacher, Mr Briggs, who is one of the main characters of the play "Our Day Out" (1987) by Willy Russell.