The role of an educator is to educate. By definition of what an educator is, performing this task is the sole thing that makes a person an educator. Despite this, it is not uncommon for teachers, when asked even a sincere or important question by a student, to say that they want to teach someone how to think, not what to think. No one can actually teach someone how to think without teaching them what to think, of course, but there is also the fact that a teacher must forsake an educator's responsibilities in order to avoid giving actual answers.
No other profession would likely be shown the same lenience for such an obvious and incompetent cop out. If a firefighter was asked to put out a fire and only replied, "I'm here to make sure you can put out fires," refusing to put the fire out after the comment, would anyone listening think that the firefighter was truly fulfilling his or her job? Teachers are able to say similar things and avoid deserved criticism because their profession is often seen as an exception.
Furthermore, most people are far too imbecilic to ever discover significant truths on their own except by accident and in relatively infrequent cases. If someone truly expects the average person, or even the average "expert," to formulate a sound worldview on their own, then that person is deeply mistaken about the unfortunate intellectual incompetence and apathy of general humanity. If a person knows the answer to a significant question, is asked what the answer is, and refuses to share it, the one who withholds information is partly at fault for the continued ignorance of the questioner.
Even someone who seeks answers from an educator still needs to autonomously consider those answers (if they are received) and realize that an educator's reputation or credentials have nothing to do with the veracity of them. The necessity of individual reflection on what an educator says, as well as the possibility that someone can teach themselves through the use of reason and through experience, do nothing to excuse an educator from avoiding their role.
Critical thinking can be encouraged, and even taught, but its absence is never justification for withholding information. Nevertheless, the only way to directly teach critical thinking is to explicitly teach someone about the nature and sound use of the laws of logic. Ironically, it is reason that allows people to discover and prove certain things to themselves without consulting other people. Someone must already grasp the most foundational laws of logic in order to even have understandable experiences while talking to a teacher to begin with.
Proper educators will not avoid specificity and honesty. The only way to thoroughly include these in a teaching style, of course, is to actually give people answers when they need or seek them. It is one thing to try to help another person develop autonomous thinking skills. At the same time, many people are not competent enough to think autonomously, and they should not be intentionally left in ignorance when they directly ask for answers.
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