Jesus Christ of Academia

This morning, I went to my first class of the semester, a 400-level course taught by the department head. As a senior I am used to the constant tirades and worshipping of a course by the prof:  Philosophy professors with their Master's telling me all sciences owe their start to Philosophy, Psychology professors claiming to be the actors in the hardest and noblest of sciences, Business teachers saying, "You will fail this class if you do no read the text. This isn't math class."  All these egocentric bastards believe their course/science trumps the others.  Call it a knowledge of the deepest parts of the subject bias, or a JOB PRESERVATION sales pitch, the bullshit abounds day 1. 

This morning I was in for a special treat when I got my fill of this, along with a constant reminder that we are "adults" and will be treated as such.  "If you are a point short, then you are a point short, no grace, no mercy: fairness for everyone."  "I have never been accused of being nice."

I'm sorry, where in this superfluous waste of my time did I get treated like an adult? I have been part of the "real world" for 3 years now (obviously not in school, because no one treats that like the real world) in various jobs and roles.  Adults get grace, adults get mercy, if you are 1 dollar short on a payment of over 400 dollars, that 100 extra pennies gets forgotten, or you can get away with it.   Adults don't get policies explained to them; with the how's and why's of their existence.  Adults are told the rules, and they deal with it.  Adults do not have to sit in a room with 39 other adults and finish the sentences of a neurotic fuzzball in a jcpenney suit (honestly? invest some of the 6 digit salary and go to Men's Wearhouse at the very least, you should be professional) while being reminded that their failure to read the text will result in a failing grade, despite previous knowledge to the contrary. 

It's a 400-level class.  We had to jump through hoops to get here, we understand it won't be "given to us like our cars."  That school had become something so diluted and corporate made him sick, and he was going to train us to change it.  If someone is cheating in this class, you tell someone, or else your "A" isn't worth as much.  Who the fuck does this guy think he is?

"And he came to the place that was the lectern, and there he took up the cross on which he was to be sacrificed.  As his tormentors scorned and beat him with whips of ignorance and naivety, he asked the fathers to forgive them: 'Locke, Voltaire, Aristotle! Let their burden of inexcusable stupidity be not a burden, for I have come to lay myself down so they may escape the horrors of their inexplicable ineptitude!' As the bells rang, as the grounds flourished with life, he gave his so they may better know knowledge."

Ph. D. 5:9-11