Primary school teacher here. Define for me please "dumb follower?" I have rules for class engagement that I demand all my students follow. They're for their benefit as much as they are for mine. Ever try teaching any classroom of students where one or two decide to express their freedom and individuality and impose it on everyone else? Yeah, all learning comes to a halt. Listen, there are bad teachers out there, i e , dumb teachers (by that I mean DUMB teachers), incurious teachers, and teachers who can't manage a classroom. But you're not talking about any of those teachers. You seem to be takintg about ones who turn students into dumb followers. In the process of an education, i e., any learning endeavor, the student submits oneself humbly to the teacher. Not that you can't ask questions, but if I asked you to teach me how to change the oil in my car and you agreed, I wouldn't start shooting my mouth off about everything on my mind when you started the lesson. I'd watch, listen and learn, ask clarifying questions, hope for some critical feedback when I make a mistake, and then thank you for the lesson. That's all we're trying to impart on students from K to post-doc. A little humility. All highly educated people have it.