'Sucking up' the learning experience

Is it not possible to simply sit back, take in a teachers lecture, apply your skills to class work, actively participate, and come away from the class with new knowledge? If you are doing anything more than this, what are you trying to prove? And who are you trying to prove something to? We are all our own person, or so we should be anyway. So when you try your hardest to impress someone, say whatever you think a peron in a superior position wants to hear so you will feel accepted, or make it clearly known that you are all knowing, then who are you? You are no longer your own person. You are a puppet who allows superiors to command your strings. Plus, when you think you are gaining acceptance, you are not. Sure everyone around you will smile in your face, and acknowledge your skill, but everyone also knows you are hollow. My point is, true happiness comes from acceptance on the inside, not from the outside.