Breaking Bollocks, a Jason-centered spinoff, coming soon.
Reltzik
“Because I don’t actually have any chemistry background, I shall instead recruit chemistry students by explaining how the electron spin notation is actually partial derivative notation, the way their teachers didn’t.”
I mean, it sounds like he’d be in the same situation anyway even if he hadn’t slept with Sal, because his coworker/ex is a dick who thought it was funny to make him lose a job when she didn’t even know he was doing what she accused him of.
Jason certainly deserves what’s coming to him, but it wouldn’t play out too much differently, I feel.
thejeff
Though then he’d be able to go to whoever she accused him of having sex with and have them tell the tribunal it was bullshit. Assuming she did pick Sal, based on needing the office and such.
Jason lost his job as a T.A. A job he was spectacularly shitty at and didn’t need for financial reasons from all appearances. This is a First World Problems sort of ruined.
On the one hand, he lost his job as TA, a job he needs in order to stay in his program at college. No college, no student visa, and he goes back to England with no way to complete his education and no marketable skills.
On the other hand, he could easily save this job if he would get over himself, not be a shit, and think before he acts. So I really can’t feel too sorry for his creepy ass.
BBCC
He has a bachelor degree, probably in math. What kinda jobs can you get for that? I’d imagine he could probably at least go into something to do with money.
I’d say he could be an accountant, but he doesn’t seem to have a very good grasp on the concept of accountability.
…does that play work?
Coma
I vote for: Yes
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Well, as somebody who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Maths…I actually found myself near-unemployable for many years, right here in London. So yeah, maybe Jason’s working life really is ruined in the short-to-medium term. xD
To continue the story though, after a few years in a shitty job in a high street betting shop, and several more years of unemployment, I went back to college to study accounting. Because Accountancy job roles want actual Accountancy qualifications, not just some nebulous shit like Maths degree.
And now I’m – finally – a newly-qualified junior accountant.
And @Delicious Taffy, that pun was brilliant. 😀
All-Purpose Guru
He can open a formula repair shoppe.
All-Purpose Guru
Given that he got caught schtoinking a student I’d say he’s probably not gonna qualify to be a math teacher somewhere.
alice
i’ve never heard “schtoinking” before but it’s really good
With the right kind of math, he could become a quantum mechanic?
–Dave, repairing timelines for fun & profit
LookingIn
I was under the assumption that TAs like him(that is- non lab TAs) were independent of the programs and were actually employed as a way of earning the masters and PhD students money while they obtain their degrees…him losing his job wouldn’t directly impact him but could cause the department to take his papers under closer scrutiny.
BBCC
Sometimes masters and PhD programs have a TA component as a requirement.
And Jason already told Sal if they were caught, he’d get kicked out of his program. Whether he meant the TA program or his grad program, I’m not sure.
I think we’re a bit harsh on TAs and academics in general seeing as none of us are trained teachers and are rarely hired for our teaching skills. You take someone who is excellent at maths and say “now you need to teach maths” and expect magic to happen. The whole system is idiotic.
Jason sleeping with a student is a separate issue and obviously wrong but I can’t hold poor teaching skills against him as that’s an issue with the system.
Lin
That’s changing, at least at PhD-granting institutions in the U.S. Many are introducing clear pedagogical projects to make sure that TAs (and potential future faculty) are actually trained in the scholarship of teaching and learning and pedagogy. Because I received more intentional training in pedagogy and the scholarship of how people learned, I actually made extra money while in my PhD to help train people in disciplines with less of that formal scaffolding (often math and science disciplines, but not exclusively in those areas).
Annonymouse
It is a long time coming – my second year was totally messed up by a prof on the way out that had negative sum skill at transmitting valid information.
When I switched majors after a brief hiatus to work so I could afford to eat, I ended up Tutoring half the classes I was taking at the time. The instructors for the most had passable to good communication skills, the TAs had little grasp of the subjects and even less capability to communicate [a two way endeavor]
People keep saying Jason was a bad T.A., but do we really know for sure? Yes, he had sex with a student (which was wrong), but he did give her work for others to grade (so he recognized that he needed to avoid any sort of bias).
As for his ability to teach, we really only have 2 data points: Walky and Sal. Walky was a horrible student that I don’t think ANYONE could get through to. And while Sal has done better under Danny than under Jason, she was likely coming from a situation where she may not have had a decent foundation for the subject (something universities often require).
And it should be pointed out that Jason was actually upset when Sal said he couldn’t teach. So at the very least he is aware of his limitations and wants to improve his skills in the area.
thejeff
He’s a lousy teacher. (Which to be fair to him, isn’t that surprising. He’s likely a first year TA, has no training in teaching and quite likely no way to fit any into a demanding program. And the professor he TAs for is also lousy and uncaring, so he’s got no mentor or support.)
That said, he denigrated Sal when she first came to him for help, after his initial way out of line flirting comment. And pretty much kept it up throughout the session. It’s hard to tell since we haven’t seen much detail of his tutoring, it seemed he simply kept repeating the same point even when she clearly wasn’t getting it. No attempt to try different ways to explain or to approach the subject or even to try to figure out why she wasn’t getting it.
And he apparently didn’t give her work to someone else until after she confronted him the first time – it was the one she did better on that he made the comment about knowing it was real because he didn’t grade it.
All that said, he does seem to want to be a good teacher, which puts him above Penny or the Professor, even if he’s not actually doing anything about it.
BBCC
I’m pretty sure sleeping with your student kinda immediately checks off the ‘bad teacher’ box. It’s not just frowned upon, it’s an actual ethical no-no.
thejeff
True, but I think it’s worth separating the two and clarifying that he’s not only ethically bad, but he lacks the skill and ability as well.
Given that he had sex with a student despite knowing that that’s against the rules and generally being shitty at his job, I’m disinclined to feel sympathy for him.
And then he immediately turns it around when she calls him on it too.
Once again: Fuck off, Jason.
Insanenoodlyguy
Actually that seems to imply that he wouldn’t in fact have done that except in the hypothetical. He intentionally sent her paper to somebody else so there was no question about the grade’s integrity, but he’s insulted that she thinks he’d only give her that score if he was in fact being bought off with sex.
He still wouldn’t have actually done it, which is why he gave her grade to another TA in the first place.
Mind you he already crossed way, way over the line and now we are just measuring distance away from the line, but if he was intending to do that one would have assumed he’d have just done it in the first place.
BBCC
I would think if that were what he meant, he’d have just said ‘I was being hypothetical’ when Sal pointed out he gave her a crappy grade instead of ‘Are you ALWAYS going to be sore over that?’ (Also: You brought it up you asshole – you being Jason, not you insanenoodlyguy, you seem great).
cbwroses
I thought he was saying that if he was grading her on sex instead of math, it would have been higher. Not in a hypothetical trade of sex for grades, but in regards to how much he enjoyed it.
His life isn’t ruined. He just lost a TA job. He can get another one at one of several dozen universities, provided that he is at least a little bit competent in his field.
318 thoughts on “Tell-tale”
Ana Chronistic
“so… when’s math?”
Ozzi
No math just meth.
Delicious Taffy
Breaking Bollocks, a Jason-centered spinoff, coming soon.
Reltzik
“Because I don’t actually have any chemistry background, I shall instead recruit chemistry students by explaining how the electron spin notation is actually partial derivative notation, the way their teachers didn’t.”
ozzi
And then sleep with them.
David DeLaney
And/or musth.
Dave, autumn in the air
Doctor_Who
Jason will find a new job easily. He’s such a people person.
C.T Phipps
Jason will work as Galassos and get angry at the fact Becky is the Assistant Manager before him.
Calvsie
Eventually the entire cast will be working at Galassos.
thejeff
Dumbing of Shortpacked?
Shortpacked of Age?
AnvilPro
Walky just totally ignoring that Jason’s entire life is basically ruined is actually really annoying
Emily
Given Jason ruined his own life by sleeping with Walky’s sister, I’m finding it hard to be sympathetic
DrunkenNordmann
Walky still sucks at reading a situation, so he really comes off as a twat here.
“Oh hey, you have to deal with some shit – BUT WHAT ABOUT ME!”
someone
If he didn’t suck at reading the situation, he’d have understood his sister was banging Jason.
taekwondogirl
I mean, it sounds like he’d be in the same situation anyway even if he hadn’t slept with Sal, because his coworker/ex is a dick who thought it was funny to make him lose a job when she didn’t even know he was doing what she accused him of.
Jason certainly deserves what’s coming to him, but it wouldn’t play out too much differently, I feel.
thejeff
Though then he’d be able to go to whoever she accused him of having sex with and have them tell the tribunal it was bullshit. Assuming she did pick Sal, based on needing the office and such.
Jago
Well, he definitely deserves to get fired, he did break the rules, but I still feel bad for him.
No Name
Given Jason is also ignoring what Walky’s saying, I’m saying turnabout is fair play.
C.T Phipps
Jason lost his job as a T.A. A job he was spectacularly shitty at and didn’t need for financial reasons from all appearances. This is a First World Problems sort of ruined.
Viktoria
On the one hand, he lost his job as TA, a job he needs in order to stay in his program at college. No college, no student visa, and he goes back to England with no way to complete his education and no marketable skills.
On the other hand, he could easily save this job if he would get over himself, not be a shit, and think before he acts. So I really can’t feel too sorry for his creepy ass.
BBCC
He has a bachelor degree, probably in math. What kinda jobs can you get for that? I’d imagine he could probably at least go into something to do with money.
Delicious Taffy
I’d say he could be an accountant, but he doesn’t seem to have a very good grasp on the concept of accountability.
…does that play work?
Coma
I vote for: Yes
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Well, as somebody who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Maths…I actually found myself near-unemployable for many years, right here in London. So yeah, maybe Jason’s working life really is ruined in the short-to-medium term. xD
To continue the story though, after a few years in a shitty job in a high street betting shop, and several more years of unemployment, I went back to college to study accounting. Because Accountancy job roles want actual Accountancy qualifications, not just some nebulous shit like Maths degree.
And now I’m – finally – a newly-qualified junior accountant.
And @Delicious Taffy, that pun was brilliant. 😀
All-Purpose Guru
He can open a formula repair shoppe.
All-Purpose Guru
Given that he got caught schtoinking a student I’d say he’s probably not gonna qualify to be a math teacher somewhere.
alice
i’ve never heard “schtoinking” before but it’s really good
Delicious Taffy
Schtoink is a Psychic-type Pokémon. If it stops bouncing, it goes into cardiac arrest.
Eyebrow
Actually, I’m still not sure he’s been caught. Penny accused him, but Sal didn’t. If nobody can produce the student, then he’s off the hook.
I think he should just challenge the accusation. Nobody even knows her name. But he’s feeling pretty guilty and so he won’t.
BBCC
Also it requires Jason to be decent enough at lying.
Reltzik
The intelligence community loves recruiting math majors for cryptology.
… provided, you know, that they don’t have strong indicators of loyalty to other nations.
Annonymouse
Also scruples, a sense of justice, conscience, belief in democracy and the constitution [not according to the CBP though]
Deanatay
Software development. I know this because REASONS.
David DeLaney
With the right kind of math, he could become a quantum mechanic?
–Dave, repairing timelines for fun & profit
LookingIn
I was under the assumption that TAs like him(that is- non lab TAs) were independent of the programs and were actually employed as a way of earning the masters and PhD students money while they obtain their degrees…him losing his job wouldn’t directly impact him but could cause the department to take his papers under closer scrutiny.
BBCC
Sometimes masters and PhD programs have a TA component as a requirement.
And Jason already told Sal if they were caught, he’d get kicked out of his program. Whether he meant the TA program or his grad program, I’m not sure.
bubba0077
As someone who has a PhD, it’s kinda both.
Inahc
teeechnically he hasn’t lost it *yet*.
monkyvirus
I think we’re a bit harsh on TAs and academics in general seeing as none of us are trained teachers and are rarely hired for our teaching skills. You take someone who is excellent at maths and say “now you need to teach maths” and expect magic to happen. The whole system is idiotic.
Jason sleeping with a student is a separate issue and obviously wrong but I can’t hold poor teaching skills against him as that’s an issue with the system.
Lin
That’s changing, at least at PhD-granting institutions in the U.S. Many are introducing clear pedagogical projects to make sure that TAs (and potential future faculty) are actually trained in the scholarship of teaching and learning and pedagogy. Because I received more intentional training in pedagogy and the scholarship of how people learned, I actually made extra money while in my PhD to help train people in disciplines with less of that formal scaffolding (often math and science disciplines, but not exclusively in those areas).
Annonymouse
It is a long time coming – my second year was totally messed up by a prof on the way out that had negative sum skill at transmitting valid information.
When I switched majors after a brief hiatus to work so I could afford to eat, I ended up Tutoring half the classes I was taking at the time. The instructors for the most had passable to good communication skills, the TAs had little grasp of the subjects and even less capability to communicate [a two way endeavor]
segnosaur
People keep saying Jason was a bad T.A., but do we really know for sure? Yes, he had sex with a student (which was wrong), but he did give her work for others to grade (so he recognized that he needed to avoid any sort of bias).
As for his ability to teach, we really only have 2 data points: Walky and Sal. Walky was a horrible student that I don’t think ANYONE could get through to. And while Sal has done better under Danny than under Jason, she was likely coming from a situation where she may not have had a decent foundation for the subject (something universities often require).
And it should be pointed out that Jason was actually upset when Sal said he couldn’t teach. So at the very least he is aware of his limitations and wants to improve his skills in the area.
thejeff
He’s a lousy teacher. (Which to be fair to him, isn’t that surprising. He’s likely a first year TA, has no training in teaching and quite likely no way to fit any into a demanding program. And the professor he TAs for is also lousy and uncaring, so he’s got no mentor or support.)
That said, he denigrated Sal when she first came to him for help, after his initial way out of line flirting comment. And pretty much kept it up throughout the session. It’s hard to tell since we haven’t seen much detail of his tutoring, it seemed he simply kept repeating the same point even when she clearly wasn’t getting it. No attempt to try different ways to explain or to approach the subject or even to try to figure out why she wasn’t getting it.
And he apparently didn’t give her work to someone else until after she confronted him the first time – it was the one she did better on that he made the comment about knowing it was real because he didn’t grade it.
All that said, he does seem to want to be a good teacher, which puts him above Penny or the Professor, even if he’s not actually doing anything about it.
BBCC
I’m pretty sure sleeping with your student kinda immediately checks off the ‘bad teacher’ box. It’s not just frowned upon, it’s an actual ethical no-no.
thejeff
True, but I think it’s worth separating the two and clarifying that he’s not only ethically bad, but he lacks the skill and ability as well.
BBCC
Fair enough!
Tacos
Given that he had sex with a student despite knowing that that’s against the rules and generally being shitty at his job, I’m disinclined to feel sympathy for him.
C.T Phipps
I remind you he also told the student, who was feeling proud at her earned grades that he would have given her a better grade if she’d “asked.”
Jamie
… citation?
C.T Phipps
His “I would have given you a better grade than that.”
C.T Phipps
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/genuine/
Here we go!
BBCC
And then he immediately turns it around when she calls him on it too.
Once again: Fuck off, Jason.
Insanenoodlyguy
Actually that seems to imply that he wouldn’t in fact have done that except in the hypothetical. He intentionally sent her paper to somebody else so there was no question about the grade’s integrity, but he’s insulted that she thinks he’d only give her that score if he was in fact being bought off with sex.
He still wouldn’t have actually done it, which is why he gave her grade to another TA in the first place.
Mind you he already crossed way, way over the line and now we are just measuring distance away from the line, but if he was intending to do that one would have assumed he’d have just done it in the first place.
BBCC
I would think if that were what he meant, he’d have just said ‘I was being hypothetical’ when Sal pointed out he gave her a crappy grade instead of ‘Are you ALWAYS going to be sore over that?’ (Also: You brought it up you asshole – you being Jason, not you insanenoodlyguy, you seem great).
cbwroses
I thought he was saying that if he was grading her on sex instead of math, it would have been higher. Not in a hypothetical trade of sex for grades, but in regards to how much he enjoyed it.
Ob
His life isn’t ruined. He just lost a TA job. He can get another one at one of several dozen universities, provided that he is at least a little bit competent in his field.
Reltzik
No, Walky, you can’t. This is the Math department, not the psych department.
tim gueguen
Actually Walky will only be able to get extra credit for this kind of thing when Mike Warner University is established.
C.T Phipps
Bent, Bowed, and Broken…Bow chicka Wow wow!
BBCC
Does that mean someone is going to get a fairy?
(Those are the opposite of dragons, right?)
Needfuldoer
Is he observant enough to make it in the Psych department? Can he find the pineapple hidden in every room?
Schpoonman
This was amazing.
StClair
“Congratulations!”
Chronos
“Congratulations!”
buli-buli
“Congratulations!”
Keulen
“Congratulations!”
TrueVCU
David Walkerton, like Judgement Day, cannot be stopped. Only delayed.
StClair
But… the future refused to change.
takashid
serves you right jason
DailyBrad
I love that Walky wasn’t even trying to pester Jason this time, he just happened to show up at a bad time.
Delicious Taffy
In all fairness, Jason, you could have just not fucked a student.
Doctor_Who