> It's almost as if my professors wanted to instill in me the belief that I should trust credentialed experts rather than trying to figure things out for myself

> It's almost as if my professors wanted to instill in me the belief that I should trust credentialed experts rather than trying to figure things out for myself. Well, yeah. That's exactly what they're trying to do. They have a vested interest in it! I spent a entire class arguing that it was a logical fallacy ('appeal to authority') with my Eng. Comp. professor, when he required that x% of your work be cited. He finally did agree, but declined to change the requirement. I dropped the class (and the college!). It remains to be seen who 'won' :)