269

Rusty
Posted on February 5, 2017 by David M Willis
2017-01-patreon2previewThere's two new bonus strips for this month over at the Dumbing of Age Patreon!  The first, voted for by Patreon members, featured Penny (Jason's fellow math teaching assistant).  The second, chosen by me, features Sayid and Becky!  Bonus strips are viewable by any of my patrons, and those who pledge $5 or more per month get to see tomorrow's strip a day early.

269 thoughts on “Rusty”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    what, WORK??? nooooooo my mortal nemesis

    1. Ana Chronistic

      manly Kaiji tears a-flowin’

      1. DarkoNeko

        manly ? where ?

    2. butts

      Work?!

      1. KingoHrts

        Keep hearing Bob Denver do this line. Geez, how old am I?

        1. EvilMidnightLurker

          I’m not old enough to have watched it live and I still heard him.

    3. Stephen Bierce

      *plays Lou Reed’s “Don’t Talk To Me About Work” on the hacked Muzak*

      1. Falling Star

        *puts KEI’s “Hello Worker” on the Up Next list*

      2. Stephen Bierce

        Even on the street when I hear a phone ring my heart starts to peak…

    4. IllogicalBobcat

      Work is totally the worst part of getting things you want. It’s a dumb game and I hate it.

    5. Deanatay

      WORK? But, this is college! TV and movies tell me that college is just one long orgy of parties and freedom! They said nothing about WORK!!

  2. Nicster216

    DAMNIT WHO LEFT THESE ONIONS IN MY ROOM

    1. Kernanator

      It’s raining!

      1. miados

        but its winter

        1. Falling Star

          Still raining. Especially if you live where I live.

        2. butts

          it’s the rain

        3. miados

          fine its rain. now if you will excuse me i want to go on vacation but i can only afford a babysitter or a dog sitter and now I have to figure out how i can have someone watch my daughter and dog without paying extra………

        4. Falling Star

          Every time the rain comes down
          I close my eyes and listen
          I can hear the lonesome sigh
          Of the sky as it cries…

        5. Deanatay

          California? It’s where I am, and it’s been raining for months, now.

        6. New Kid

          isnt that a good thing, considering yor recent droughts?

  3. ValdVin

    The tears are sweet. This might not be a just for fun relationship, but more difficult to get out of should Dorothy go to Yale.

  4. Nicster216

    Walky and Dorothy = #relationshipgoals

    1. Falling Star

      #ifihadarelationship

  5. Falling Star

    How are you having trouble with linear functions? I’ve been learning that for years, and I’m not even IN college yet!

    1. Jess

      Like everything in math, they unfortunately get more complicated. 😛

      1. Rob Carlson

        I hear that. Counting is harder than calculus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorics

        1. 3oranges

          Until calculus turns into things like tensor calculus and measure theory. Ok., it’s possible the hardest combinatorics is still harder, but it would take a good mathematician to know for certain.

    2. AY

      And, like everything in life, there’s people who just can’t wrap their head around some things (particularly math things.) Dorothy will do her best to help, though!

      1. CJ

        And sometimes it’s just that they need things presented in a way that makes sense to them.
        (Still hating the math teacher whose “and then you do the algorithm” without ever explaining
        a) what an algorithm is and
        b) how you approach creating the one you need
        who made me drop programming 30-odd years ago.
        About 5 years ago, I came a across a good explanation and was like “hell, why did he make such a mystery out of it?”)

        1. ischemgeek

          … I hate that.

          Like, one of my sibs has dysgraphia that affects their pattern recognition for solving math problems, so I did figure out an algorithm that would do the problem solving for them – but I put it in a flow chart and taught it in a step-by-step way. Step 1, figure out what the question is asking for. Step 2, pull out only that information which is relevant to what the question is asking for. Step three, … etc.

          Cuz my sib could do the computations easily enough, but they couldn’t figure out which computation to do when. So I devised an algorithm that would do it for them.

          And their teachers were annoyed because memorizing an algorithm isn’t “true understanding” but that’s bullshit if someone is literally not able to pattern-recognition, why the hell would anyone force them to rely on it? Why not devise something that takes care of the pattern recognition? They’re still doing the math. They’re still applying the computations. It’s just that the pattern recognition of “what tools do I use to solve this problem?” is done consciously with an algorithm rather than unconsciously the way most people do it.

          I never could understand why my sib’s math teachers got annoyed with me…. maybe because 16YO me was the one who figured out my sib isn’t “bad at math” they’re bad at pattern-recognition, and if you take care of the pattern recognition, they’re actually pretty good at math – and because the fact that my sib’s scores in math legit tripled (from high 20s to low 30s to mid 80s to low 90s) after we got the algorithm developed and working well showed that the problem wasn’t with my sib, but with how the material was being taught.

        2. ischemgeek

          … not dysgraphia. I’m the one with dysgraphia.

          Meant to write dyscalculia.

          It’s early and I haven’t had coffee yet and I’m just getting over food poisoning.

        3. Gwen

          Ugh, feel better.

        4. Gwen

          My least favorite professor ever: I was taking a graduate-level statistics class in another department with a professor who liked to explain everything using calculus and calculus notation. I am dreadful at calculus. I went to her for help around midterms, and her response was, verbatim, “I’ll have to go over the guidelines for letting students from your department take my class.” I went to someone else for help and got an 89 in the class, thankyouverymuch. I’d like to say that I showed her, but I doubt she even noticed.

        5. Gwen

          Possibly also relevant to note, I’d gotten an A in that course’s immediate prerequisite, and I got an A in the course after it too. It was just this professor who thought I was stupid because I don’t learn the same way she does.

      2. thejeff

        I’ll just point out again that this isn’t a “Math is hard” thing. Or a “Walky is dumb or even bad at math” thing. This is a “Walky doesn’t study or even pay attention in class because he’s never needed to” thing.
        He doesn’t really need to be taught special tricks or even really help with the math concepts – he needs to learn basic study habits

    3. Suzi

      They never go away. Ever.

      ~Signed, a physicist.

      1. Falling Star

        Correlatioooooons…
        [drools]

    4. Cephalo the Pod

      Maybe she’s referring to, like, Linear Algebra?
      Like, when you have:
      ax1 + bx2 = ey1
      cx1 + dx2 = fy2

      1. butts

        Linear algebra requires calculus.

        1. Reltzik

          Not…. really?

          I mean there’s a lot of overlap with linear algebra and vectors because, well, vectors. But usually they get taught in both classes.

        2. Reltzik

          *overlap with linear algebra and vector calculus

        3. butts

          In reqs, I mean. Basic calculus is usually a requirement for higher-level maths.

        4. Jimi

          At least at my college, linear algebra does not require calculus, and for good reason. It’s so much easier than calculus and so much less weird to a high school student who’s only done geometry and algebra, I wonder why calculus gets taught in high school while linear algebra doesn’t. I’d think it’s because calculus is more important, but I’m pretty sure every field that uses calculus also uses linear algebra.

        5. William

          For a mathematician, linear algebra is actually best taught with differential equations. There’s a LOT of overlap.

        6. DinaWho

          Nah. Calculus is easy. Linear algebra is torture.

          At least for me.

        7. Oz

          In my country nobody learns calculus in high school, but everybody learns matrix computations and basic “linear algebra”. We are always questioning why the heck do we have to learn matrices and not calculus when calculus is obviously useful for all science and matrix computations are pretty much useless without a deeper physics/statistics/ODE/actual-linear-algebra context. It’s funny to imagine people elsewhere would have the oposite point of view..

        8. Carms

          Linear algebra was taught concurrently with calculus in my first year maths courses

    5. DrHTeph

      Don’t know how it is done over at your side of the puddle, but here I have seen it so often. People comes from our “gymnasium” (equivalent to highschool-ish) and have a mental breakdown at first week calculus course. It is not counting and writing any longer but understanding how and why and prove.everey.frakking.step. It gets the smol I-am-a-math-prodigy-I-belive every time. Most snap out of it pretty fast, but some …. have trouble getting their ego inflated again.

      1. CoMa

        *gasp*….could it be….your first language is German?! (a fellow native speaker? *gasp*)

        The internet’s so small!

  6. Reltzik

    And here comes the real confrontation. Getting Walky to Worky.

    No, Walky won’t walky to worky under Walky’s own power. Walky must be gotten to worky by the worky of others walking walky to worky.

    …..

    THOSE ARE TOO WORDS!

    1. Falling Star

      can’t say it five times fast

      1. Reltzik

        It-it-it-it-tit FUCK.

        1. Emperor Norton II

          David Attenborough: And here we just heard the mating call of the well named “foul-mouthed bluetit”, a most extraordinary and fascinating bird. Considering how this bird was hunted almost to extinction by fundamentalists in the 19th century, we truly are lucky to hear this wonderful call today.”

        2. Lokitsu

          +1 internets for you.

  7. Ragnarok101

    In the midst of chaos and angst, there is still fluff.

  8. butts

    so.

    how about that sweet bachelor pad, walky

    1. Falling Star

      amber’s butt can definitely be considered a bachelor pad, yes

      1. butts

        in that all of the guys who have ever been near it are currently bachelors, yes

        1. Falling Star

          They may not be bachelors to each other, soon…
          #ethannyftw

        2. Spencer

          Thank heaven for small miracles.

    2. Nono

      Hey, the White House would make a pretty great bachelor pad. Or he can have a bachelor wing.

      1. Gwen

        Lots of room to install trampolines on the lawn

  9. Horchata

    OH NO WALKY YOU BIG BABY </3

  10. tim gueguen

    Walky’s self esteem seems a bit less than I thought.

    1. miados

      from what i can tell walkys parents protected him from any level of failure if they could help it which means his first big flop will hit extra hard now.

      1. Thevoiceoftreason

        Also, his parents forever treat Sal like she doesn’t exist because of one past disappointment.

      2. thejeff

        From what I can tell, it’s more that Walky’s very smart and not particularly driven, so he coasted through high school with little effort. (Probably putting more effort into not being stuffed in lockers, which is a valid approach to surviving high school.) So a lot of his self-esteem is tied up in being able to do that.

        His parents have lots of problems, but I’m not sure how much they’re to blame for this one.

    2. Jason

      Walky’s self-esteem seems to have conditions. The moment those conditions falter, so does his self-esteem.

      1. Sam

        This is true, as Dorothy has pointed out previously, he can be really smooth and confident at his best, but at his worst he turns into a stuttering buffoon.

        When he feels things are going well his self-esteem is high, when he feels they are crashing and burning, his self-esteem drops too.

  11. Yumi

    Wow, when did Dorothy take calculus? Since it’s been a minute for her and all– though I guess by this time of my freshman year of college, I well into forgetting my senior year calculus.

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      I mean, it would make sense for her to take it as a high school credit, since it’s a pretty good thing to have when applying to universities (at least from my Engineering-majoring perspective).

      1. Yumi

        Yeah, I was just thinking by how she was talking that it might have been more than a year. Plenty of people at my school took AP Calc BC as juniors, but since that’s double-advanced, it’s really not that common in most of the time.

        I took it as a senior myself, and I knew I wanted to be an English major, so I don’t think it’s strange for her to have taken it, I’d just be interested in when it was.

        1. vlademir1

          It also depends what your high school’s curriculum is like in general. Twenty years ago when I was in high school Calc was, in our district anyway, a rare elective that only high achiever AP seniors took. This was largely because it was the highest course on offer by the math department at the time and the default high school entry level was set to make it work that way.
          At best you could take your choice of Algebra 2 or Geometry as a freshman which would put you on track to take Calc senior year (doing one of those as a freshman, the other as a sophomore and Trig as a junior). Outside remedial math and Algebra 1 there weren’t any math courses available for high school credit outside main school year classes (ie summer school).
          Now, as I understand it from friends with kids in that district, there is a system in place to take classes at the local community college for both high school and college credit (still have to have district approval to take ’em during the school year mind) and summer classes on offer through Trig at the high school so Calc is common for seniors and intro Linear Algebra is on offer at the high school for the high achieving AP Seniors.

        2. Deanatay

          Dorothy’s def the sort who would have taken AP courses in high school. Esp with her Yale ambitions, that’s practically a prerequisite.

        3. Nappus Maximus

          I went to a specialized STEM high school that used its block schedule to cram Algebra 1 and 2 into freshman year, Geometry and Trig into sophomore year, and then throw you right into Calculus for junior year. We literally had 3 hours of math a day. It was pretty crazy.

  12. Some1

    Noir (slowly leaning into 24, and we may see some Agatha Christie at some point Dumbing of Age):

    Narrator: It was personal now. Jocelyn was in the hospital and Jonathan was dead (note: I said brothers yesterday in regards to Jocelyn because Ruth doesn’t know that she’s transgender, nor does Joyce)

    Robin sat at her desk, looking through campaign files…wait…let me rephrase that…Kyle (Robin’s aide) sat at her desk looking through campaign files, meanwhile Robin was watching Stranger Things on her iPad.

    Just then the door burst open.

    Kyle: Hrmm…

    Joyce: Where’s Robin!?

    Robin: Yo!

    Joyce: I have questions for you.

    Robin: I wasn’t involved with that issue in the Bahamas!

    Joyce: Stop saying that…also what?

    Robin: oh you must be here about the murders.

    Joyce: someone killed my sibling. This ends tonight…or at least this weekend!

    Robin: Why did you come here, also do you want a button?

    Narrator: Joyce tossed the note onto Robin’s desk.

    Joyce: do you recognize this handwriting, Roz said it was yours.

    Robin: I recognize the handwriting but I wouldn’t…

    Joyce: wait a sec…so far everyone who’s been killed would have voted for the Republican Party.

    Robin: according to my sis, Mary hated me.

    Joyce: but does the killer know that?

    Robin: Probably not.

    Joyce: exactly

    Robin: so does that absolve me?

    Joyce: No, I still need to know why someone has your handwriting.

    Robin: maybe someone who works with me, a lot of people have some access to my writing.

    Joyce: hmm…well I’ve got all night, let’s look through files.

    1. Falling Star

      IT WAS LESLIE

      1. Emperor Daniel

        IT WAS JESSICA

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          IT WAS I!

          …wait, are we not just shouting?

      2. BBCC

        Calling it – it’s Ryan.

  13. Keulan

    I’m not crying, you’re crying!

    1. Koms

      You’re not crying, I’m crying.

    2. HunchyBack

      You are both crying.

  14. spriteless

    Wow Dorothy sure loves a problem she can solve. She is finding herself again.

    1. Emperor Norton II

      That, and she also sure loves Walky.

  15. Nicster216

    This panel is more sad when I realize Dorothy is still planning on transferring colleges ?

    1. Clif

      Yeah.

    2. Gwen

      Hey, who knows? Maybe Walky will catch some of her ambition and transfer too.

  16. Jabberwocky

    Why on earth is he taking calculus as a telecom major

    1. Falling Star

      It may be required before he can move on to some higher courses.
      Or it’s simply an elective, seeing as how he probably thought he could breeze through it.

      1. BBCC

        He needs a math for his general requirements and apparently this was the next level up from his high school (so his highest math in high school was likely pre-calc).

    2. RacingTurtle

      In addition to what Falling Star and BBCC said, it wouldn’t surprise me if his parents had input into his class schedule. Linda’s decided that Walky’s destined for pre-med whether he knows it or not (seriously linda what the hell), so she may have said something like “Make sure you sign up for Calculus, sweetie” that he just went along with.

      1. Dana

        Even without Linda’s input, his self concept says he shouldn’t take “easy math”. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/smalltalk/

      2. AgentKeen

        Yeah, my guess is his mom (who still thinks he’s going to be a doctor, he just doesn’t know it yet) probably encouraged it, and he didn’t try to get out of it because he already had it in high school and assumed it would be as easy.

  17. Cephalo the Pod

    Wait, linear functions? Are we talking, like, y=mx+b? Or, like, the stuff in linear algebra where you have multiple equations featuring multiple variables?

    1. butts

      The former, but with calculus, I suspect.

      1. Falling Star

        Still not complicated enough to warrant flunking.

        1. butts

          I mean, I wouldn’t have thought so, but I aced calculus in high school, soooooo…

        2. Yumi

          There’s good chance there’s more to it than some people are thinking, and, more importantly, different things are challenging for different people.

        3. Mandy

          I start to lose it all when you get more than two letters in an equation. I’m in college, at 30, and still couldn’t pass a basic algebra course.

        4. Valerie

          Man, anything past basic algebra just completely shuts down my brain.

        5. StClair

          Same.

        6. C baker

          It is for some people.

        7. RacingTurtle

          I hope your attitude is coming across more judgmental on-screen than it is in real life. But if it’s not, and you really are that judgmental of the idea of someone flunking, I sincerely hope that attitude fades soon. Chances are good that someday either you will find yourself failing something that people around you think is easy, or someone you care about is failing something you think is easy. I want you to treat that hypothetical you or that hypothetical friend with support and kindness. People are individuals who experience different challenges different ways. High expectations do not have to be synonymous with perfectionism or being judgmental.

          Sincerely, An Actual-Factual Scientist Who Is Also an Actual-Factual Mental Illness Sufferer

        8. Norah

          Thank you.

        9. Cerberus

          This.

          One thing I’ve learned as a teacher is everyone has different concepts that click for them and others that take a lifetime for all the pieces to come together and it can be somewhat random between different students. I’ve had students that have struggled with a lot of concepts in a class just breeze through the part that most kids get stuck on and a lot of the time, the difference between success and failure is simply confidence and the willingness to allow themselves to fail.

          And it’s one of the big reasons I focus a lot on confidence building in my classes and centering that failure is a key part of science and success. You can’t know what the right path is until you’ve messed up and found the wrong paths and everything shows valuable information. Either of what doesn’t work or needs more work or where the path to success lies, shoring up dead ends and so on.

          It’s also why I refuse to grade homework assignments based on accuracy, and only grade homework on effort, because I want a kid to try and fail an assignment that they don’t fully get so that I know what are the concepts that need more review and where in the problem or their notes they are getting lost.

        10. Chris Phoenix

          Grading on effort might be a problem for a few bright students who can do in their head what most can’t. They’d see the problem, get the right answer, write it down… and get graded down for lack of effort? That would be pretty demotivating.

          Unless you manage to differentiate enough to challenge everyone? If so, major kudos.

          (I realized early on that trig identities were much easier if I simplified both sides down to sines and cosines, which would then match – so I did it that way – and they made me copy the entire right-hand side under the left-hand side in reverse order, and erase the right. On every problem. Even though that step literally could have been done by an illiterate person. I managed to stay motivated and even to find trig identities fun, but it didn’t exactly develop my creativity.)

        11. Cerberus

          Yeah, I do the differentiation thing a lot and I don’t grade down someone who just breezes through, but I do if they just have random numbers on the page or didn’t start it.

          It’s mostly about burning through bad old habits from previous schools of just trying to snow the teacher by “completing” things or just ignoring the homework and getting students who view doing nothing as somehow less frightening than putting down a wrong answer to at least try to answer it correctly.

          Plus, given the type of answer, I usually have a good idea of about where they went wrong and if not, I usually ask the student to show me how they solved the problem so I can see what they’re doing in long-form.

        12. Nightsbridge

          “just ignoring the homework and getting students who view doing nothing as somehow less frightening than putting down a wrong answer to at least try to answer it correctly.”

          That was me. Annnd I’m pretty sure I never unlearned that. Dealing with stuff like that should be mandatory. I graduated with a bachelors in english still more afraid of failing than trying.

        13. ischemgeek

          Case in point for me: I was 12 before I could throw a ball in anything close to the direction I wanted it to go, but I was reading before I could talk (as much as my folks can tell anyway) and I figured out trig at 7 and then derived calculus at 8.

          Oh, and I was 9 before I could ride a bike, and 15 before I could run without literally tripping over my own two feet. In my late 20s, I still can’t write cursive or print neatly.

          When I ran into force fields, I had a hell of a time with them (like 0% on that section of my undergrad first-year intro to physics) until like 3 years later when I suddenly had an “Oh, THAT’S how you visualize them!” moment and suddenly I understood well enough to tutor others (I am a super visual person especially with math, in part because I have this weird color-code thing I do with math that nobody around me gets – “It’s right because it’s purple” makes no sense to anyone but that’s kind of how my brain figures it out and then I figure out how to justify it afterwards… I dunno, hard to explain but my brain seems to do math ass-backwards and upside-down from how everyone teaches it)

          Some people just have super asynchronous development – and the hell of it is that if you’re super-good in one thing (like math and reading for me), everyone expects you to be that good in everything and when (not if) you’re not, they treat it as a moral failure (laziness, attention-seeking, obstinate, take your pick) and not a “I legit don’t get this” failure.

          I wonder if that’s what Walky is running into here? This sense of “I have to be good at EVERYTHING or I’m horrible and worthless.”

        14. BBCC

          Okay, this is none of my business and please tell me if I’m overstepping, but have you ever heard of synesthesia? Just because your description of colour coding reminds me of how I’ve heard people with it describe things like letters or math: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

        15. ischemgeek

          I’ve heard of it and it has occurred to me that I might have a mild case of it. To me, math is colors and music is colorful patterns (hard to describe but imagine a kaleidoscope moving to a beat? That’s close ish). But that’s about it.

        16. BBCC

          I’ve heard of both of those being kinds of synesthesia. They aren’t the most common kind (I believe that’s the one to do with words or letters), but those both sound like different ones.

        17. Gwen

          Hi-fives for the clumsy people! I had to take remedial gym. Yes, that is a thing. I still occasionally do a face plant trying to walk down stairs.

        18. ischemgeek

          I took OT for four years to even be able to print legibly. I am also a “gifted” kid. ALL the “if you’d just apply yourself to this like you do to your math…” and “you’re not living up to your potential” and “For a smart kid you sure can be stupid. I mean, come on! Who can’t throw a ball?” etc. :\

        19. thejeff

          “Not complicated enough to warrant flunking”?

          Even without studying or paying attention? Walky’s got bad habits.

      2. 3oranges

        The thing is, functions of the sort y=mx+b are really the simplest thing you can apply calculus to. Now, no disagreement with RacingTurtle, that doesn’t mean everyone should be able to just do that.

        What it does mean is that if you have trouble there, your problem isn’t with those functions, but with calculus as a whole. That’s for instance where Sal was, not understanding what dx was, until Danny helped her work through it.

        Those functions should be too simple for Walky to flunk on, since we know he was still ok coasting at that point. He’d have to be failing a little bit further, though maybe not much, like linear combinations of other functions or something.

        1. Tan

          I would like to note Walky hasn’t actually announced where he’s having trouble. Dorothy’s talking to the book. I think she’s just picked a point and started flipping backwards until she sees something she confidently recognizes, then she can skim forward from there to refresh herself.

          At least that’s how I do when I’m trying to remember how something I haven’t seen in awhile works.

        2. 3oranges

          Good point! I could hardly question a real-life trig ratio on anything to do with math. 🙂

    2. Pie

      From the context, I would guess they are using linear functions to explain the concept of derivatives (tangent line at a point). To my knowledge, Calc 1 only deals with derivatives of single-valued functions of one variable, so I don’t think the linear algebra notion of a system of linear equations applies here.

  18. DrunkenElf

    I’ve fucked up like Walky so often. In college and High School, I struggled with homework assignments and I would stress about it for so long that it thoroughly fucked over my grades. Except the main reason I did was because I never TOLD anyone I was having trouble. The moment I started asking teachers for extra help, none of them gave me shit and absolutely gave me help.

    I still feel like a fool for not realizing that teachers and professors just want you to succeed almost as much as you do.

  19. Hellespont

    Walky is fortunate. For me, a girl asking for help with her math homework, really only wants help with her math homework.

    1. Falling Star

      You’re lucky she wants to try. A guy who asks me for help with anything just wants me to do it all for him and give him credit.
      Come to think of it, that happens with a lot of people.
      Hmmm…

      1. Pablo360

        That’s probably why I never help anyone.

    2. Carms

      Walky is fortunate because a girl is happy to help him with math homework, whereas you are unfortunate cos you are happy to help girls with their math homework?
      Or, you’re unfortunate because girls aren’t using their math homework to hit on you?
      I’m not sure you have a consistent context for your syntactically linked clauses there.

  20. C baker

    Wow. Exactly what the hell went on in Walky’s house that – despite clearly being their favorite child – his reaction to failing a class is “people will be mad, they’ll leave and not love me”?

    1. miados

      he never had to try so he never failed so he doesn’t know how to handle it and seeing how he vs his sister were treated and realizing it now he is starting to worry about how not being seen as the “perfect son” or “great student” could shatter his whole reality which is a large part dorothy right now.

    2. Emperor Norton II

      My guess: Growing up with the expectations that only successful* people are worth loving.

      *As in getting the right kind of jobs and earning the right amount of money.

      1. Nono

        His degree is in telecommunications though, which isn’t exactly a field known for fame and fortune.

        1. Ellen

          True, but his mother wants him to be a doctor and has plans for Walky to switch his major, whether he wants to or not seems to be irrelevant to her.

        2. Pablo360

          That’s just what he thinks, until he switches to pre-med.

        3. Pablo360

          Clarification — that was a joke, and a reference to what his mom said

    3. StClair

      Sal.

      1. C baker

        Clearly, but previously it’s been shown that Walky breezed right past most of that. And – to be fair to him and his parents – she did teenaged rebellion in a big way.

        1. BBCC

          He may have tuned out a lot of their arguments, but he probably at least knows they ARGUED and that Sal had problems with school. And yeah, even just thinking ‘crap, are they gonna fight with me now?” is gonna be a lot of pressure on him.

        2. Chris Phoenix

          And she rebelled because… she’d been treated like the disappointment for years by the time she became a teenager?

      2. C baker

        (Which doesn’t mean that the way they reacted and continue to treat her was right, because no, but it does mean I’m surprised that Walky internalized it this much. Maybe there was more pressure on him in that household than Sal realizes… or even than he consciously realizes.)

    4. BBCC

      Well, why not? That’s basically what they did to Sal. One of the things that made him ‘the good child’ was that he got excellent grades. If that’s gone, the differences between them are smaller – and will they start treating him the way they handled her ‘failures’.

      1. C baker

        I’m just surprised he realized this and internalized it to this degree.

        1. BBCC

          Well, before now, it was easy to brush aside and ignore them. To just go ‘eh, whatever, arguing about something to do with Sal’s bad grades, glad I don’t have that problem, my grades are awesome! I’m so super smart!’

          He can’t do that when he’s facing the same situation. And even if he didn’t pay attention to much of the argument, he’s cottoned on there will be a storm coming if his parents find out.

    5. Rob Carlson

      Don’t forget that Walky hasn’t shown the best track record of understanding how his parents think; iirc, he didn’t realize until recently (in comic time) that they favored him over Sal. I don’t think he ever internalized the fact that the people around him are forgiving of his fuckups because he never understood himself as the type to fuck anything up before. There’s clearly a disconnect between the world inside Walky’s head and the world around him.

      I know when I was in HS I assumed that my parents thought I was a failure when I didn’t bring home grades that were as high as my siblings’, but in hindsight it’s obvious that my parents never used our grades to compare us against each other and that I was projecting my own disappointment onto them. Your perception of the people around you can differ wildly from the reality.

    6. Larkle

      I mean… Sal failed expectations. And got banished to boarding school. So, I guess he figures love is conditional.

      1. StClair

        And from the other side:

        I remember, years now after I first read it, a comic book story where the protagonist – a father himself – gets waylaid by two antagonists, a father and son, who have exactly that sort of relationship. And while he’s struggling to escape the trap they’ve left him in, he also has to deal with a pang of doubt: has he made it absolutely clear to his own son that he always has his father’s love, that it’s not conditional and he doesn’t have to prove himself?

    7. Chris Phoenix

      Probably, he saw that if he ever failed or disappointed his parents, he’d get treated like his sister.

  21. Noheart6265

    I hope that Walky has learned a valuable lesson. Relationships take time and work, and that means that you don’t end them after a mistake, especially if it’s one that can be fixed.

  22. Jess

    I’m so glad to see Dorothy reacting like this for Walky — speaking as a “gifted” kid who has been in the same predicament, sympathy and/or an offer to help (with an emphasis on working hard over raw talent!) is the best way to respond to someone who has just told you that they’re failing at something.

    I hope they do okay going forward. I’m so fond of both of them.

  23. Emperor Norton II

    Not sure there is much to say, apart from this:

    1: D’AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

    2: Cerberus’ interpretation of Dorothy in the last two panels yesterday seems to have been more on the mark than mine. Good. I’ll happily be wrong about that one.

    3: At least I was not wrong about Walky seriously thinking that he’s not good enough for Dorothy unless he’s super-smart and getting As all the time.

    4: That said, it’s good that Dorothy’s not letting him completely off the hook this time. “Not if we work hard” makes sure he won’t end up learning the wrong lesson again. Because while you don’t have to succeed, at least you need to make an effort at something and not just run away from the problem.

    Huh, I guess there was a fair bit to say after all.

    1. Chris Phoenix

      I don’t think she was saying “We’ll have a problem unless you work hard.” I just read it as “You’ll have a problem unless you work hard, but you can still recover if you do.” I think she was being 100% practical and objective – which Dorothy is good at.

  24. miados

    walky and dorothy here make me think being in a relationship might be nice. I should try it someday. but not yet

    1. Falling Star

      SOON.

      1. miados

        no not soon. if i am lucky i might try to find dates in um…… july if everything goes lucky/good

        1. Falling Star

          I didn’t mean that you should find something soon. I was simply offering moral support. Forgive me for not making myself clear.

        2. miados

          Ah i guess the caps made me think otherwise.

  25. Derek

    I think those people yesterday who said that Walky saw how his parents treated “failure” with Sal and learned that it’s the worst thing ever were right on the money

    1. Cerberus

      Yeah, his parents have terrorized him to think that if he ever isn’t “smart” or a “success” then he’s going to get abused as thoroughly as Sal. And that’s even worse for him these days because he’s starting to notice how thoroughly abused Sal has been between the passive-aggressive gifts, the complete ignoring of her during Parent’s Weekend, and so on.

      1. Emperor Norton II

        Heck, even without Sal, they’d probably manage to instill that only successful* people are worthy of love all the way to his bone marrow. It’s not exactly an uncommon attitude in the USA.

        *in terms of wellpaying and respected jobs (see: Walky’s mom planning to make him change majors to medicine)

        1. Cerberus

          Heck, in America, it goes even beyond that. Success isn’t just a measure of worth, it’s considered a benchmark for life or death. If you’re successful, you deserve all the things and tax breaks too. If you fail whether it be by abilities, luck, ambition, or oppression, then you deserve the worst.

          And that dog eats dog mentality is hammered home early.

  26. Fallingivy

    Jesus Christ, this hits me in my dyscalculic with abusive conditional love-giving parents heart like a hot knife through butter. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

    1. Emperor Norton II

      *Offers sympathy via an appropriate way of physical contact/gesture/whatever you want*

      1. Falling Star

        But what if that’s…
        You know what, never mind.

        1. Emperor Norton II

          Ehh, I’ll take one for the team then.

          I mean, I assume you mean that Fallingivy wants sympathy by way of being able to send me a glitter bomb in the mail, right?

        2. Falling Star

          …What?
          Points for originality, but you’re thinking tame.

        3. Emperor Norton II

          Oh, I know what you were really thinking. Just wanted to steer the conversation into a different direction.

        4. Fallingivy

          I’m asexual and actually highly uncomfortable with being the subject of this kind of talk, so thanks for trying to change the topic somewhat.

        5. Emperor Norton II

          Anytime.

      2. Fallingivy

        You know what, every single one of my friends is an awkward shoulder patter, and so am I. I have never met anyone who does anything but reach over tentatively and give a couple careful pats on the shoulder or back for when someone is upset. I’m sure there are huggers out there but they have yet to make themselves known to me.

        1. Cerberus

          Well, in that case, *hugs offered*

        2. Pablo360

          In my experience, huggers usually tend to be pretty weird people.

          Then again, in my experience, literally everyone I have ever talked to and their mothers are pretty weird. Especially myself.

          So… high five that changes into a fistbump and then back on its way to your open, expectant palm.

    2. SteveMcGuyver

      augh. sorry, dude.

  27. Bicycle Bill

    “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.”
    ……MEDITATION XVII (1624); John Donne

    1. Dana

      Wow, “No man is an island” is so much better in context. Thank you.

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        And really weird when that Tuesday’s with Morrie “we’re all waves” thing pops back into your memory, and you start creating warring earth spirits/golems and water nymphs/unicorns in your head to fill in a now thoroughly mixed metaphor.

        1. Clif

          I like the way your mind works.

        2. SgtWadeyWilson

          *Tips hat.*

  28. Derek

    (by the way; if anyone is following up from yesterday; my friend is back in her dorm, away from her father. She’s alright for now but she might have lost the safety net of her parents)

    1. Falling Star

      Oh goodness, it’s real-life Becky.
      I am sending all the hugs and free McDonald’s food I can at her right now.

      1. Derek

        the thought is very much appreciated! my friend is better off than Becky because she still has a supportive mother and she already finished her bachelor’s, but it’s still a bad situation.

        I am a bit staggered by the parallels to this comic though….there’s even a not-so-nice church in the equation

  29. Queen Anthai

    AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

  30. bryy

    Dat alt-text.

  31. SundaesChild

    I am having so many flashbacks to when I had to drop out of college. I was SO sure I would be disowned and unfriended, and so sure I would deserve it.

    1. Faun

      Same. I was soooo shocked when my friends didn’t loathe me for “failing”.

    2. Gwen

      My parents threatened to disown me when I dropped out of college. Fortunately, they stopped when I actually dropped out. They’d thought threatening would change my (healthy) decision, and when they were proved wrong, dropped it.

  32. alana

    i am identifying with Walky so hard right now that i might actually die (and am actually crying)

    i’ve had basically this conversation after, like, having a minor disagreement about video game characters. #tooreal

  33. Pablo360

    I’m having a hard time pinning down exactly what math course they’re taking. I’m IN Calc 4 (which is the highest level of class I’d expect Walky to be taking freshman year), and in my recent memory of all my calculus classes I don’t once remember a serious discussion of the squeeze theorem. I guess he could be in an earlier class, but THEN it wouldn’t make sense to be talking about linear functions, since beyond the very basics of calculus they aren’t relevant until you talk about equilibrium solutions of differential equations — which is a Calc 4 concept.

    1. Pablo360

      Either that, or he’s in an even MORE advanced math class, which is stupid even if he thinks he’s the reincarnation of Leonhard Euler.

    2. Chrissy

      When I hear linear function, I think y=mx+b. But I got a C- in calc, so what do I know

      1. Pablo360

        That is exactly right, which is odd, because that would be at the very beginning of a Calc I book, or later on in a Calc IV book — and if it’s Calc IV, then they wouldn’t be talking about the Squeeze Theorem yet, and I know this because I’m in Calc IV and we haven’t started talking about the Squeeze Theorem yet.

        Also, the Squeeze Theorem is just generally a weird theorem.

    3. Meta

      It was previously referenced as Advanced Calculus (or something like that), and the context of the conversation seemed to indicate that it was either Calc II or perhaps Calc III (or the equivalent course), so… maybe Dotty is referring to linear functions in the context of, like, parametric equations? Related rates? I don’t know.

      Anyway, to paraphrase David Willis, “you can lead the cartoonist to storylines about calculus but you can’t make him learn calculus.”

      1. BBCC

        It’s Calculus I iirc. Which makes sense, as that’s one of the common courses to fulfill Gen Ed requirements (which would explain what Sal’s doing there when she clearly hates the class and does not have a major yet).

        1. Tan

          Calc I would also make sense in that it would be equivalent to high school AP Calculus, which is presumably where Dorothy’s knowledge base comes from, since she says she hasn’t done any calculus in awhile.

        2. BBCC

          And Walky mentions that calculus was the next level up from his last high school class – and a lot of high schools only go up to Pre-Calc.

    4. Dana

      Walky explicitly states that his previous class was Pre-Calc. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/smalltalk/

  34. Lielac

    I know that feel, Walky. I know that feel. (How does one study, anyway? I have no fucking clue myself, having been in Walky’s position expect I hit the wall in high school.)

  35. DarkoNeko

    Awwww

  36. Opus the Poet

    My problem with calculus was scheduling Calc 1 was only offered as the first class in the morning and I wasn’t awake until after lunch. I could write a BASIC program that would parse and integrate an equation to do all my homework in the calculus and computers class at 4PM, but I couldn’t pass a test in the 7AM class.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Derivations were a tiny bit harder to program for some reason I don’t remember 40 years later.

  37. missilentmurmur

    The last comment of Dorothy is pushing my buttons. In Hungarian, I would say “adott a szarnak egy pofont” (“she hit the shit”, meaning she was meaning well, but did something with the same bad result as the original). You just don’t say an if clause to someone who learnt that love is always conditional on their intellect (or else but this is the case here). Not even jokingly. If Walky is written consistently, that sentence will appear in his nightmares, it will creep out of corners when he’s trying to study alone, with the same numbing effect, because his thinking is more used to that route. It takes years to unlearn the “I will love you, only if you”s

    1. Rage of Aeons

      I actually don’t think she’s referring to whether she’ll still love him or not.

      I think it’s more referring that if they work hard, he’s not going to have screwed up his education, that he can still pass math.

      That being said, totally get where you’re coming from.

    2. Chris Phoenix

      Given that it’s Dorothy, I’m 90% sure she meant “You’ll be OK if you work hard,” not “We’ll be OK if you work hard.” The latter would indeed be f’d up. The former would be objective and practical fact.

    3. CoMa

      Huh.
      I read it more as “Not if we work hard” = “I stay with you and help you, so WE do this together” so, as a declaration of support, nothing else. ESPECIALLY with the face she’s making in the 5th panel. I read that as a “Of course my feelings don’t change like that just because you goofed up hard”.

    4. Yumi

      I wasn’t sure what to think of her last comment myself, but I’m mostly commenting to say that all I can think when I see your translation of that saying, all I can think of is the American aaying, “Talk shit, get hit.”

      1. Clif

        Having lived in America since 1949 (except for 3 days in Mexico and three weeks in Canada and the Arctic Circle) I must say I have never in my life heard the American saying, “Talk shit, get hit.” What kind of Americans are you hanging around???

        1. DinaWho

          *notes the year given* Younger ones, probably.

        2. Yumi

          Are you familiar with “snitches get stitches”?

  38. BP

    (wibbles) Really hitting the feels today … I have so been where Walky’s been that it hurts, though not his specific situation. I hope he and Dorothy stick together. <3

  39. Cerberus

    Comic Reactions:

    Panel 1: I love this moment, because Walky has been in such distress, besieged by messages that if he admitted this failure, this vulnerability, it would lessen him in the eyes of others, that they would love him less and so seeing Dorothy mostly just freaking out about if she remembers enough Calculus to help him is just… heart-warming. It’s exactly what he needed.

    Panels 1, 2, and 4: And here we see how the accumulation of toxic messages can become crippling. Like, growing up a guy, he’s had to swallow tons of bullshit about how showing vulnerability or admitting fault is the most unmanly thing you can do and will mean the girl you have will dump you for someone more “alpha”. Cause well, almost everyone raised as if they were a guy has had that bullshit dumped on their head and enforced with violence.

    And beyond that, he also has the racial element. The way black men are assumed to be “dumber” than their peers or more animalistic and how his nerdery has felt like a defense against that perception. The thing that keeps him “generically beige” rather than being dismissed like his sister as “some dumb black kid”. It makes the stakes feel so much higher than they would otherwise because a lot of his perceived personhood is indeed based on this racist ass bullshit.

    And finally, there’s the toxic messages from his family and what he’s realizing he has perceived over the years. How his sister’s struggles in school or in social interactions were treated as signs of her unruly unpersonhood and how much their love for him was based on him fulfilling their very specific expectations as to his behavior (never standing up for the marginalized, never standing up for one’s self) [not saying he’s actually any good at following this expectation, but there’s definitely that expectation in both Billie and Walky’s families]. As well as on his academic performance and successes.

    And especially seeing their brutal response to his sister’s failures. How she became essentially a ghost in her own family, having to carve her own path out on her own after a lifetime of being undermined and neglected by her parents when they weren’t trying to teach shame about her blackness.

    He really has internalized that failing, especially in ways that feel big like that means losing all the people who swore they would love you, means being screamed at by parents until they start pointedly ignoring your very existence, means losing their love.

    And that hits home, because I’ve definitely been there learning that my parents’ love was actually conditional on me being cis, seeing a lot of people abandon me in some hard times, and suffering some things I’ve reluctantly had to acknowledge as abusive, I still freak out like Walky sometimes and get worried that I’ll say or do some one wrong thing that will mean the people closest to me will see the rot under my surface and abandon me.

    And it’s what makes Dorothy’s actions so special here. Because she loves her doofus and her love is unconditional.

    Panel 6: And yeah, that’s the secret to things people will look at and call intelligence. It’s mostly just hard work and practice and accumulating knowledge. No one is born into this world instinctively knowing how to solve fractions or knowing about the War of 1812. You have to learn it.

    Sometimes my students will make some self-deprecating compliment to my “smartness” and I’m always quick to intervene with the fact that “smartness” is just having had a lot of experience with some facts and what matters most is the willingness to learn.

    And the sad reality is that Walky is probably an auditory learner and had teaching styles that matched his learning styles before. But now in a classroom with a shitty teacher and his shitty TA and having missed what was likely a crucial day with regards to a new concept, he’s having to learn new methods of independent study.

    That having to try doesn’t mean failure doesn’t mean idiot. And it’s beautiful that Dorothy can give that lesson as gently and full of love as she does.

    It really makes me want to root on these two even if their strange heterosexual lifestyle is confusing and baffling to me (though it should be fine so long as there aren’t too many of “those” types of people and we make sure to put up warnings so kids don’t accidentally stumble on this and start asking questions about more… “modern” family arrangements) 😉

    1. BBCC

      Honestly, as a straight person, I wish so many straight people were less political and ‘in your face’ about their orientations. It’s so embarrassing and unnecessary. 😉

    2. Nightsbridge

      Ye. I admit, I haven’t been too harsh on Walky about . . . well he’s done a lot bad, but his expecting Dorothy to leave him isn’t . . . Well, it was NEVER about her. I think, though I may be projecting.

      Like, laying down and thinking about how your friends are so much better than you and you don’t deserve them . . . Never ONCE do you think that they are fickle, that they are flighty, that they will abandon you. I suppose I project something like that onto Walky here . . .

      He doesn’t think that ‘Dorothy will leave him.’ Or ‘Dorothy will stop loving me.’ He thinks; ‘I deserve to be left, I don’t deserve to be loved.’ Which, gives me a lot of sympathy for the guy on this angle.

  40. BenRG

    This strip makes me think that Walky and Dorothy may be together for the long run. They’ve both admitted to each other their vulnerabilities and their insecurities. That isn’t something that anyone does casually. There is a depth to their relationship that’s unusual in a couple who are this young.

    I do hope that Dorothy absorbs just how important Walky feels her being with him is to him: This isn’t just about flunking math; this is about the girl with whom he’s fallen in love not thinking that he’s a failure.

  41. Faun

    Walky’s reaction is my entire school career every year from 1st grade to when I had an emotional breakdown and flunked out of college. Failure in school is terrifying. I’m glad he’s getting help b/c I still haven’t recovered from the feelings of failure myself, stays with you for a long ass time.

    1. Clodia

      [hugs]

  42. mister gray

    is her name really beck atcher? That reminds me of the name King Faraday. She must have been teased at school with names like hey its back atcha.

  43. ScarvesandCelery

    Is it just me getting reminded of this scene from the Steven Universe episode “Full disclosure”?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLscYdZCAW8

    1. A

      My thoughts exactly!

    2. Emperor Daniel

      Does this mean that we will soon get to meet Walkorothy?

  44. MatsuoTanuki

    She said if we’re gonna make this work…
    You gotta let me inside even though it hurts
    Don’t hide the broken parts that I need to see
    She said like it or not it’s the way it’s gotta be
    You’ve gotta love yourself if you can ever love me!

    I’ll do whatever it takes…
    To turn this around!
    I know what’s at stake…
    I know that I’ve let you down
    And if you give me a chance…
    And give me a break
    I’ll keep us together…
    Whatever it taaaaaakes…
    Baaa, ba ba ba, baaaa baaa…

    I know you deserve much better…
    Remember the time I told you the way that I felt…
    And that I’d be lost without you and never find myself…
    Let’s hold onto each other above everything else…
    Start over, start over…

  45. Bicycle Bill

    Stephen Bierce has been falling down on the job, so —

    Plays “What a Wonderful World” (Sam Cooke version) on the hacked Muzak….

  46. BBCC

    Panel One: Dorothy probably got her Calculus done in high school, either as an AP or simply because her high school offered it. We know Walky’s didn’t. It’s sweet that her first thought was whether or not she’d remember enough to help. She cares about Walky doing well. Even if she is a little rusty, she’s sure she can understand well enough to get him on the right track, even if he has to seek a tutor for the rest.

    And, oh, Walky. He did not expect this. He expected angry and yelling and arguments because shit, you don’t just accept failure. Failure is something to be shunted away and punished and treated badly. That’s the message not just of his parents, but also a consequence of wrapping himself in messages that asking for help is failure, that being naturally smart means he never needs to work ever and so this is failure, and that its dog eat dog and so any weakness is failure. He needs a hug.

    Panel Two: Awwwwwwwwww, he’s crying. That noise you all can hear is my heart shattering. This kid really does believe that being a ‘failure’ makes him worthless and unworthy of love. A good chunk of that is due to his environment not being conducive to support (FUCK. YOU. WALKERTON PARENTS.) but some is also just him getting in to this shame spiral and believing Dorothy is great and he’s utterly terrible and soon it’ll be obvious and she’ll leave. But it’s not obvious. She’s still here. And will be until she goes to Yale (assuming they don’t decide to go long distance, which is a distinct possibility).

    Panel Three: Dorothy is so cute here. Musing over her math and seeing what she remembers and what she doesn’t before starting on helping Walky. It’s sweet to see her try to pull together something of a plan to start this out. This is what she needed – a problem she knows how to fix and is relatively simple solution wise.

    Panel Four: Okay, yeah, my heart is punching it out with my ribs trying to break free and drown me with feelings.

    And again, for the kids in the back – FUCK. YOU. WALKERTON PARENTS. Because, as Walky has been learning more and more recently, the answer will almost definitely be no when his parents find out. Failure is not a thing they tolerate. This will equal at least an argument and lots of passive aggressive and emotional low blow scolding and lecturing. They used grades and social struggles to retroactively justify their emotional abuse and negligence towards Sal. Hell, Walky used the robbery to retroactively justify those things too.

    It’s most likely something he’s thought about. Even if he tuned out all their arguments with Sal, he most likely knows ‘eh, they’re fighting again, something about her grades, no big deal’. It’s a big deal now though, because he might be facing that same issue now and he is not used to dealing with that at all.

    Or they could go the other way and decide this is somehow Sal’s fault because Walky’s their golden baby boy. So obviously this is Sal’s fault. She’s the older twin, she should be helping him. Or she needed to butt out and stop distracting him by dragging him into her problems. Or their papers wee somehow switched. Whatever excuse they need because it can’t be a problem with Walky.

    But here, now, their stupid reactions don’t matter (except that the fear of it has fucked up both their kids and FUCK. YOU. WALKERTON PARENTS.) Because Dorothy is not a Walkerton parent. She is sweet, thoughtful, and loyal enough not to ditch him for having a math struggle. And that means everything to Walky.

    Panel Five: That hits her big. Because yeah, she can tell this has been like pulling teeth and huge emotional struggle for him. Showing him she’s here to help and won’t turn on him has to be emotional for her. She knows she’s better than that and she’s going to help him.

    Panel Six: Awww, Walky. It’s sweet of Dorothy to put her head on his shoulder to comfort him.

    And yeah, he’s been terrified. Of what this means for his grades, his self image, his talents, his relationship with his parents and of being treated like Sal, and of losing people who matter. Everything good just going POOF because he’s such a stupid failure.

    And Dorothy is right. This is probably a simple fix. A little more elbow grease and he’ll be okay. She might be wrong, but they won’t know if he doesn’t try his best. And it is most likely an application problem as he hit the wall. Most people can’t float forever.

    And yeah, it’s not the answer he wanted, but he seems willing to accept this as help and reach for what he wants and so big yay for Walky and progress. <3

    And hopefully this will get him on the right path to understanding. Dorothy will hit a burn out if she takes too much on, but maybe they can ask Joyce or Sal or Danny for help. Anyone but their godawful teacher and TAs. Either way, this is a start and that is everything.

  47. Tnoy

    I bet Dorothy’s glad to be presented with a solvable problem for once.

  48. CJ

    In the first panel I though ” hell, don’t concentrate on the factual, Dotty, he needs emotional support first”. I thought he’d see her trying to remember her calculus as something that puts his problem down. And we’d get one more moment were Dorothy fails to relate to people because she concentrates on the factual.
    But things work out in a different way. This works for Walky, something gives him the reassurance he needs. Even in the last panel, where the if could have been iffy, his “dammend” is objection to hard work, not laced with doubt of her love.

    This Dorothy doesn’t relate well to people storyline hits close to home for me. A friend recently offered “Because people are intimidated by you knowledge and intelligence” as the reason I ‘m single and it hurt like hell. To her, me speaking English fluently is already part of “my knowledge and intelligence” and to me it’s just part of who I am as a mixed parentage German with Irish roots.

    1. ischemgeek

      I think, for Walky, seeing Dorothy immediately get to work on figuring out how best to help was the reassurance he needed most – no anger or shaming or whatever just, “You have a problem, let’s fix it.” It was her showing him with actions rather than words that she still thought he was worth spending time with and that she thought he was worth spending energy and time to help.

      I think Walky needed to see her not explode and not dwell on his failure – and that’s why he totally melts down from relief after he realizes that she doesn’t hate him and isn’t going to dump him over it.

  49. Passing through

    I hate the fact that I can relate to Walky in his whole dumb situation. Only difference being, there’s no cute blonde nerd to save my ass. Damn you Willis, stop, derailing the misery train!

  50. Marvelman

    A thought just occurred to me… is any cast member a creative type? By creative type, I mean a theater, dance, creative writing, or fine art major? Why aren’t there any artists in the cast? Still, I guess you could argue there aren’t any engineers on the cast either.

    1. Mollyscribbles

      One reason would be that it’s easier to do scenes where multiple characters are in the same class, so you don’t want someone with a field of study so off from the others we don’t see ’em.

    2. ischemgeek

      Carla’s an engineer!

      1. Clif

        Amber is a software engineer whether she knows it or not.

    3. thejeff

      We know Mary’s an artist. Draws anime style characters. Not sure if it’s her actual major or not.

      1. Gwen

        Don’t remember which comic, but in describing her work’s current manga style, Joyce said “that’s just how she draws, until art school beats it out of her”

    4. Sam

      I think Ethan wants to major in English and be a writer.

      1. thejeff

        I think Ethan was hitting on Jocelyn and doesn’t know what he wants, but I could have been misreading that scene.

        1. Gwen

          Or he’s just excited about all of the finest ramen.

    5. BBCC

      Let me think, just going by the cast page

      Joyce – Elementary Education

      Dorothy – Political science

      Walky – Telecommunications

      Billie – Journalism

      Amber – Computer Science

      Danny – Computer Science

      Sarah – Pre-law

      Ethan – Undeclared (says he’s considered English, may have just been hitting on Jocelyne, Joyce said he considered education as well)

      Sal – Undeclared

      Dina – Biology

      Ruth – English

      Joe – Undeclared

      Roz – Gender Studies

      Mike – Social Work (I WOULD LIKE TO FIGHT WHATEVER ADMISSIONS OFFICER ALLOWED THIS).

      Jacob – Pre-law

      Carla – Computer Engineering

      Marcie and Becky aren’t students, though Becky wants to be (majoring in biology).

      So lots of majors regarding media, social science, education, technology and science. Not so much for art. Interesting.

      1. poofdepoof

        Isn’t Mary art?

        1. BBCC

          Yes, but Mary isn’t on the cast page, so I didn’t include her.

  51. William

    As a calculus teacher, can I just take a moment to appreciate the first comic I’ve read in years [not written by someone with science degrees] that actually made a sensible math reference? I mean, linear functions actually have a lot to do with calculus – they’re literally the entire idea behind taking derivatives.

  52. Crumplepunch

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kznZcGiQ0_k

  53. zellgato

    Parental expection fears finall\y show themslves

    1. Clodia

      I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re so right.

  54. brasca1

    I can sympathize. Mathematical problems reduced me to tears on more than a few occasions although I wasn’t in college at the time.

  55. David T. Shaw

    I have to say that _Dumbing of Age_ has one of the best comment sections to read. Such a wide variety of subjects talked about, new geek information to process, warped humour. I love it.

    I know that Mr. Willis’s subject matter is part of it. Perhaps the loyalty of the fan base? The whimsical humour?
    Whatever it is, I actually have some _Dumbing of Age_ pages book marked because I didn’t have time to read the comments properly, and I wanted to go back when I had the time.

    So, does that speak to the wonderfulness of the comment section, or just to my lack of a robust social life? 8)

  56. Dora

    First comment I’ve ever been motivated to leave, though I’ve been reading this comic since the beginning. I got a little choked up reading this. I feel Walky SO HARD right now, and he’s probably the character I’ve connected with the least. I’ve been in that situation, where something has spiraled beyond my capacity to control and fix it, and been so, so terrified to tell the people I care about, for EXACTLY those reasons… because I was afraid I had ruined everything forever and they wouldn’t love me anymore. It’s like going around with cymbals crashing inside your brain at every waking moment… you can’t relax, you can’t NOT think about it because it seems so huge, you’re consumed with thoughts of how badly you think you’ve screwed up until they snowball beyond all reason in your perception, and it feels like there’s a boulder dangling over your head. I know that feeling, and I know that feeling of shock and relief when you finally get it out and discover that everything is going to be okay.

  57. Micki

    This strip speaks to me — my college boyfriend had issues with depression, causing him to break up with me because he didn’t want to “burden” me. I didn’t know about the extent of his crisis until we got back together, after he realized that I still cared about him even when we weren’t dating. Walky’s dialogue hits me right in the gut because that’s pretty much exactly how he was feeling.

    Spoiler alert: We’ve been married for about 7 months now. 🙂

  58. Deanatay

    I’m still not quite sure why my wife agreed to marry me – I keep checking with her each year on our anniversary, and yes, she’s still happy, still wants to be married to me. It’s one of the great mysteries of my life.

  59. Opus the Poet

    I still can’t believe nobody has commented on the dangers of doing calculus drunk. Hasn’t anybody ever told you don’t drink and derive?

    1. Clif

      Pie to the face.

    2. Emperor Daniel

      You.

      I like you.

  60. Lone Wolf

    Not to stomp all over everyone’s feels, but I’m amused at how in the last panel, his voice is all shaky and quivering as he expresses his fear that he’d screwed up everything forever… and then goes back to normal as he curses at the thought of actually having to work hard and apply himself to fix things.

    1. quix

      Could be. But it could also be that it’s in relation to the crying he just displayed when he thinks he’s not supposed to.

  61. Remmington Steele

    Hello Euler my old friend
    I’ve come to talk with you again …

  62. Some Guy

    Awww…

  63. Delicious Taffy

    This is hitting way too close to home.

  64. deathjavu

    I’m reasonably sure these are the biggest eyes we’ve ever seen from Walky. That’s almost Joycian levels of the anime-eyes eating your face effect.

  65. Marcel

    the alt text for this comic is straight savage.

  66. Black

    I have to be honest, even if I sound like an asshole; he’s nowhere NEAR good enough for Dorothy. He’s this useless little man-child who will only drag her down, even MORE so if this becomes a serious long-term relationship.

    As Walky is now, all he’s going to do is be this horrible mistake that Dorothy will have to deal with if/when her political opponents track him down (which wouldn’t be much of a stretch after President Trump).

    I hope he takes this opportunity to develop some maturity and actually become someone SOMEWHAT worthy of a hard-working young woman like Dorothy, and if he doesn’t then I’d hope she’d get a clue and drop him like a bad habit.

  67. Parzival

    Walky does not deserve Dorothy.

    As sweet as this little intervention is, I really hope they break up. It’s a nice fantasy, but Walky really needs to get his shit together before he’s good enough for anyone, let alone her.

    This is coming from the perspective of someone who lived through this.

    1. poofdepoof

      Wait, why isn’t he good enough for /anyone/? Because he’s not doing well in school?

      1. Black

        Because he’s a man-child whose whole life revolves around obsessing over some animated show that was cancelled over a decade prior?

        1. timemonkey

          True, but he respects Dorothy and treats her pretty well. If he wants to spend his spare time enjoying something from his childhood that’s fine, it’s his time.

        2. 3oranges

          Weren’t you still childish in some ways at that age?

          Walky is just starting university. He shouldn’t be expected to have everything together, and the idea that he should be single until then is silly. This is where people like him figure things out and relationships are part of that.

  68. DavidMcG

    “Oh, Walky. I never loved you. You knew what this was.”

  69. Woobie

    Willis is solving problems again?

    I’m scared at what upcoming strips will bring…!

  70. Bizzarro

    Legit only reason I read this anymore is for d&w.

    1. just this guy you know

      It’s nice to see some relationship stability in a comic you love.

  71. Bagge

    Walky, Walky, Walky, you doofusy doofus. She LOVES you, remember.

  72. CleverTrousers

    I don’t know what “linear functions” is supposed to mean in a basic calculus class.

    1. CleverTrousers

      sounds a lot douchier now that I’ve written it out like that.

  73. Sambo

    Heeeeeeey, wait a minute, Dorothy is doing Calculus THIS SEMESTER! She says so here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/02-choosing-my-religion/missile/

  74. Scar Man!!!

    damn. this is too real. At least he’s not a dumbass like me who gets mad at people who believe i haven’t fucked up everything forever

  75. Joner

    one week later and this is STILL pulling at my heartstrings, i can’t stop reading it <3

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