What Plutarch captures here—and what teachers often miss—is that curiosity itself is the point, not information retention. The real work happens when a student leaves the classroom still *wondering*, still *burning* with questions, rather than when they've dutifully memorized facts that will be forgotten by spring. A young person might ace an exam on photosynthesis, but the education has failed if they never look at a plant the same way again. The filling metaphor assumes minds are passive containers, but Plutarch insists they're living things that need oxygen and friction to ignite—which is why the best teachers you remember aren't necessarily the ones who covered the most material, but the ones who made you feel like an interesting conversation had barely begun.