I'm 100% certain that's what it was.
I understand your frustration about people teaching photoshop *as* photography... because it's not a replacement for it. I had a rant not too long about about someone trying to do that to me while I was looking at applying at schools last year (and I have since then decided against that). However, as everyone has said, photoshop is a *tool* *for* your photography.
It was just a bad class you took if it made you feel that they were trying to replace actual photographic technique entirely with photoshop. The more you do this, and the more you learn about photography *and* photoshop, the more you'll grow to appreciate what it can do and you'll be able to use the tool tastefully and to your liking, to develop, yet keep your photos "real".