The word for today is…

docile (adj) – 1. Ready and willing to be taught; teachable.

  1. Yielding to supervision, direction, or management; tractable.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : Docile students can make teaching a lot easier. Nowadays, calling students “docile” indicates they aren’t trouble-makers; however, there’s more than just good behavior connecting docility to teachability. The original meaning of docile is more to the point: “readily absorbing something taught.” “The docile mind may soon thy precepts know,” rendered Ben Jonson, for example, in a 17th-century translation of the Roman poet Horace. Docile comes from Latin doc?re, which means “to teach.” Other descendants of doc?re include doctrine (which can mean “something that is taught”), document (an early meaning of which was “instruction”), and doctor and docent (both of which can refer to college teachers).

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Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...