The humanities are a very special department within any institution of higher learning. No, it's not the Socrates, it's not that we'll all be living in cardboard boxes after graduation. It's the larger percentage of idiots with a pathological urge to voice their (wrong) opinions in each class. Some classes are designed for undergraduates to spout off their views, be they about how bad it is that Christianity 'runs' the government in the US, global warming, their love for how Buddhism ran the government in Tibet, or fair trade coffee. Those are seminar classes. Upper-level History, however, is not one of them. It is generally understood that in a normal history class, the student listens to the teacher, takes down thoughtful notes, and asks questions only when he doesn't catch all of what the teacher has said.
I've been keeping tally of how many times this one intellectual giant (ha) has asked 'deep' rhetorical questions, such as, "Did it ever occur to historians during the '70s that ..." or "I don't mean to say your theory isn't true, but let me offer a better one.." This kid is wasting my time and money.
I introduce to you the countdown to epic failure:
1/23/09: 13
1/21/09: 14