The first Christ Church tutor to be re-elected upon marriage was Richard Shute, a layman and philosopher….Much of Shute’s teaching was done through "private conversations between teacher and pupil’, that is, the individual tutorials which became the norm in Oxford by the turn of the twentieth century…..Lavishing time on his pupils, Shute tried to get them to think. ‘He riddled through one’s seeming knowledge’, one of them recalled, challenging misconceptions in what could be an unsettling process. Many, though, were infected by his enthusiasm for the pursuit of truth, and his commitment to the belief ‘that it is the solemn duty which man owes to himself, as a rational being, to try to be clear-headed.’
An aspiring Epicurean should at all times ask himself "Does this seem right? Do I really believe that? Am I simply being a lazy conformist?" He should be prepared to worry through a point and argue his case, thinking things out for himself. The herd instinct in man is powerful and should be resisted.
The quotation above comes from Christ Church Oxford – -a Portrait of the House, 2007
But that was in the days education only of an elite . Now we “educate” a huge proportion of the population, and it is impossible to give individual attention to students. In the process what have we lost? A hundred students go to the same lecture, take identical notes and write identical essays, regurgitating the prescriptions of the professor, without being mentally challenged or asked to justify their own written views. There is too much emphasis on how much you can earn after college and to little on thinking, reasoning, and challenging the established view..
Anyone who even toys with the idea of following the teachings of Epicurus has made a good start. Actually, not just Epicurus, but any philosophical system that isn’t just christianity as doled out by priests in a sermon. That you are investigating and asking questions sets you apart from the ordinary.