Do students prefer to be expected to repeat their teacher's opinions? A carefully reasoned argument for one's own opinion is more difficult and riskier. How can we encourage students to take the riskier and more difficult path?

"What do I try to do for my students? Well, teach them, of course—which does not mean simply feeding them with facts, much less indoctrinating them. Naturally, to some extent I can feed them with facts. For example, I can tell them that a certain Greek form is the aorist infinitive passive of such and such a verb. But most of my teaching deals with matters which call for the exercise of personal judgment. If we are discussing (say) the date, authorship and purpose of a particular biblical document, I can put all the evidence before them and tell them in which direction I think the evidence points, but I cannot force my conclusions on them; they must make their minds up for themselves. This means that they must be taught how to evaluate the kind of evidence on which conclusions of this character are based. The same is true when we are studying the exegesis of a passage on which editors, translators and interpreters differ. I can tell them my own view, and why I hold it, but I cannot impose it on them.

"What I do impose is the duty of knowing clearly, and stating clearly, their reasons for holding their own preferred view, whether it coincides with mine or not. If pupils turn out to be carbon copies of their teacher, it says little for his qualities as a teacher."

-- In Retrospect, FF Bruce