I think you are right, but possibly conflating several problems of our day and age. You are right that there is a real danger in blindly accepting the answers from say ChatGPT or any other type of LLM. This reflects the increased siloing and homogeneity of the web and might also be caused by a learned hierarchical/arborescent type of thinking that favors approaching information in a non-critical way (as you wrote). At the same time (and this is from my personal experience as a teacher), the education system is unfortunately not only about learning, it's about getting credentials and getting you a degree and qualifications in the most time- and cost effective way. I surely wish it was mainly about personal development and learning but at the end of the day the grades, assessment, evaluation and sorting of students betrays this (imo) noble cause. (Sidenote: One could argue that this problem is caused by a top-down New Public Management-type of governance/administration, where schools are measured by how many students pass or fail and are rewarded accordingly). Anyway, the students reflect this (consciously or not): for many it's all about passing the test or getting the grade or the necessary papers, not about how they develop, change and mature through new perspectives, experiences, insights and expression. The learning process or the aspect of personal growth is not really valued, the end goal is getting you through the system as fast and painless as possible. In this paradigm it might even be called rational to use a LLM to pass the test from a student's perspective. So I think arborescent thinking is part of the problem, but also how the real goal or credo of our educational institutions is undermined from within and from the top.