It was cheap and very sturdy. These are major factors for schools that provide cameras. Most people teaching photography at the time that the K1000 came out probably learned photography on cameras that didn't even have built in meters. Not having shutterspeed or aperture information in the viewfinder means one has to think about what they are doing before raising the camera to their eye, and also presents a less distracting finder. DOF with the K1000's rather dim finder isn't as useful as the DOF scale on the lens (I'm sure schools used 50mm prime lenses with DOF scales). I can't think of any of the basics that one couldn't learn using a K1000. The cult status for post-basics students and users escapes me.
BR
