While the rabbis continued to express different views on the subject of teaching “wicked” students, the general tendency was to admit all those who thirsted for knowledge, even if their character was not all that might be desired. It was very rare for a rabbi to refuse to teach a student who genuinely wanted to learn, except in the case of specialized studies which were not part of the normal curriculum.
M. Aberbach, “The Relations Between Master and Disciple in the Talmudic Age” in Essays Presented to Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie on the occasion of his seventieth Birthday, eds. H.J. Zimmels, J. Rabbinowitz and I. Finestein (London: The Soncino Press, 1967), 23.