Almost straight from C.S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength”. The iconoclastic winnowing of the faithless at university level to serve the “Head”. A prescient novel dealing with the unholy melding of progressive academics and authoritarian government. Sounds like the instructor is a talent scout for the progressive machine, identifying those of faith, marking them for further attention and greater attempts to either corrupt or destroy them. The stompers get good grades and move to the next level.
This is the time of separating the goats from the sheep.
Yes, I posted previously about the chilling and uncanny resemblance to ”That Hideous Strength”. Your analysis makes sense re separating the sheep from the goats. And fits into the.concept of the Delphi Principle that I was just reading about on FR.