The difference is he’s skipping this class because he has it figured out, vs skipping his math class because he can’t handle failing.
Doesn’t really make it better. It’s just not an issue with his grades in this case.
I think “don’t skip class” is a lot like “don’t do drugs”: good advice for some people generally; but ignoring said rules can be fun in moderation- skip classes because the bare minimum is a great way to achieve maximum happiness in areas you care about; smoke pot because it makes jeff sessions roll in whatever grave he sleeps in at night
Kris
I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Skipping and potentially failing classes is more serious than smoking pot. Depending on what Walky’s majoring in if anything, his math class could be a prerequisite for something else, or for instance classes cost money so he could also be blowing the funds his parents spent on tuition. (I’m assuming that. It’s even worse if he has any scholarships). Sarah doesn’t spend all her time studying because she wants to. A lot of factors that make skipping class in general a bad idea.
Clif
It’s okay; his girlfriend can fix it.
Techhead
I think the analogy is that skipping the classes where you’ve already got things figured out is like smoking pot, skipping the classes where you’re already struggling is like smoking crack.
Liliet
yep
thejeff
Smoking pot can potentially be far more serious than skipping classes. Almost entirely due to legal consequences.
Skipping classes can be a problem, but it’s not too directly linked to failing classes. I had one Chemistry class freshman year I never went to after the first week. The professor just read from the book to the huge lecture hall. I went to the lab, did the homework and the tests with no problem.
Other classes I didn’t do so well in, despite going regularly.
Skipping this one class isn’t likely to be a problem. If he makes a habit of it, then he might be in trouble.
Regalli
Yeah, but a lot of schools these days have an attendance policy built in that all classes have to observe, and said attendance policies tend to be really tight. Like, I think mine allowed two unexcused absences and started dropping grades from there. (Which, remembering that fact: THAT could be why Walky’s grade in math wasn’t salvageable according to Jason! I don’t think he missed enough to definitely fail the class, but it could make an A out of reach. Great job communicating THAT one, Jason!)
So it can be directly tied to failing these days – teachers pretty much also have to do attendance now to track it – and if it were only this one boring class* I’d say it probably wasn’t too big a deal to skip once… But Walky’s avoidance tendencies look very familiar to me. I think he might be starting to cascade.
* Two factors that I’d advise against Walky doing it, though: he’s a telecom MAJOR, meaning he’s gotta know this material (and since his cast page says he picked it because ‘tele’ means television so it was the closest thing to majoring in cartoons, I DON’T think this is like Amber and Danny in Comp 101 where they already do know everything and can safely tune out,) and Walky has a very definite Thing where he acts as if he does know everything but clearly doesn’t. It’s part of the reason he’s so screwed up in math. We have no idea what the class is like, but I do not trust Walky as a source for ‘yeah it’s easy and I have this’ and I do not trust Walky to only skip class this one time for this one subject when he’s having an anxiety avoidance reaction in another.
lightsabermario
Fun hypothetical to think about. This comic is supposed to represent IU fairly accurately, but with a sliding timeframe, if I’m not mistaken. But if real-life IU didn’t have an absence=grade reduction policy at the time DOA’s year started, but they do now, then would Walky’s grades be irrecoverable or not? And would Jason be off the hook for not informing Walky about a policy that didn’t exist at the time he could have warned him?
Regalli
If the policy was implemented before the 2017 Spring semester, or 2016 Fall (to give an extra month or two in the buffer,) then it would have been in effect by the time Jason was talking to Walky saying it was too late to course correct for an A. (Strip aired March 25, 2017.) If it wasn’t in effect then, then Jason’s line can continue to be taken at face value as ‘Jason doesn’t think Walky can improve enough despite it being pre-midterms.’ (Once again, Walky wasn’t trying to learn but Jason’s condescending manner makes him a bad tutor even with people who are trying.)
Retroactively because of the time frame, we can assume that any such policy is in the syllabus (it’s usually required to be there,) and was probably gone over in the first day while we weren’t paying attention. Neither was Walky, which is his own damn fault, but if he does bother to check the syllabus it will be there. (Don’t throw out your syllabus, kids.) I think Jason should have said ‘you can’t course correct because of the attendance policy’ if it was a thing when that conversation occurred, but Jason and Walky tend to bring out the absolute worst in each other.
BBCC
Really? Most professors where I go to school don’t bother to take attendance, especially in large intro classes. They just have too many students for it to affect their mark, especially when attendance taking is clunky (taking it via notes requires taking their notes until next day and passing around sheets leave it open to miss students, especially if a student is late but arrived).
Plus, these days, most class syllabi are online, at least if you’re enrolled in the class.
Regalli
Yeah, no, sign in sheets have gotten to be a much bigger deal – not sure what’s done for bigger lecture hall classes, but there is definitely a ‘you come in late, you come to the desk at the end’ thing as well.
And Walky could certainly check that! But realistically, will he?
ǝ snow ʍousɐ
But neither of those are as bad an idea as smoking pot in class!
jmsr7
Day. You mean day.
not someone else
It’s possible his other 101 classes are so bullshit easy it helped to lure him into a false state of security. I remember going into college having A Plan and deciding to Take School Seriously For Once… then I took English 101.
Then I started taking upper-level classes, and suddenly everything was completely different.
(Well, my situation was somewhat more complicated than Walky’s, but the point is that people acting like every class you take in college is super-serious high-level stuff is really bad preparation for the type of difficulty curves you’re actually going to hit.)
Khyrin
This. I LITERALLY SLEPT through a maths for non-majors course my first semester. I had four classes some days, scattered across the day. first started at 07:00 and the last ended at 22:00. Math was 15:00-16:30, and the professor had a very soothing drone. He DID show some concern of the “are you staying up to late?” variety, but he didn’t give a fig otherwise, since i was still setting the curve.
Him skipping classes might matter if he actually truly saw any negative consequences for it. Amber did scooch his grades up in the one class he was failing….Which he still hasn’t been studying for! Walky has it too easy.
I think he still doesn’t know that she didn’t put it back down all the way, either. I wonder how he’ll react now that he seems more calm about everything even if it is just a false calm .
That’s not why he still hasn’t been studying for. It’s not that he has it too easy, it’s that he’s a) given up and b) has no idea how to study. He’s damn well aware of the negative consequences. He even told Amber not to change his grades.
cbwroses
Well, he hadn’t exactly given up. The two people he thought to get help from can no longer help.
One broke up with him and one became a bartender.
Kris
WARNING! This is a hot take and entirely my personal opinion, but….Walky does have it too easy. Most if not all of his problems are easily solved without him doing much of anything.
1. He apparently just breezes through his classes. When we actually witness other characters such as Dorothy, Sarah, and even Sal struggling with their work schedule and studying to actually improve their grade.
2. When he started failing he chose to ignore the problem instead of seeking help. When he finally did he ended up getting drunk with his former T.A. and guess what? His problem got solved for him whether he knows it or not. I’ll give him credit for not condoning cheating, but that doesn’t prevent the fact Amber did alter his grade for him. Remains to be seen if there’s any blow back on that. Probably not much since they could both get expelled for that and having two main characters leave the school would dramatically change the flow of the story.
3. He got a girlfriend almost immediately after starting school and when she broke up with him (but still gave him some after breakup sex or maybe they were on pause or whatever when that happened) he immediatley got another one a day later after feeling bad for like twelve hours.
4. He can apparently eat whatever he wants without working out and not gain any weight.
These are just some examples. Walky’s not a bad guy or anything even though I personally dislike him, but he does kind of just breeze through. Especially compared to other characters who struggle with issues like their sexuality, disassociative identities, being nearly date raped, grades, social stigmization from race and a criminal past, alchoholism, being assaulted by crazy parents. (Wasn’t Dina actually shot at once!?) the list goes on…Seriously these kids are all really messed up and need help!
So in my opinion he does have it too easy and the fact is there are a lot of people in the world like that. It’s not a fault of his character, but it’s something I at least think should be noted. If people have any counter arguments I’m more than willing to read them.
Makkabee
In the Walkyverse the weight thing will apparently change when he turns 23.
thejeff
Okay. I guess I can see that, though it’s not really where I was going with it. Much of it’s just not even vaguely his fault or responsibility and doesn’t really tie into negative consequences.
Several of those things seem very clearly parts of character arcs to me, not “no consequences” finish points.
1) He apparently breezes through his classes, except for the one he’s failing, because he doesn’t put in any effort. So he’s smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is.
2)I’d be absolutely shocked if Walky’s grade problems were solved by Amber’s hacking and never come back to haunt him. Nor does he even know about it, so as far as he knows he’s still failing. He’s still going to have to deal with it somehow, he’s just a little distracted right now with relationship drama.
3)It’s also pretty unlikely, given all the drama hanging over all their heads that this is going to be as simple as “Lost Dorothy. Oh well, got a new girl. All’s well.” Even if he’s riding an emotional high about it right now.
4) Can’t really argue that. That was me in college too. Didn’t last. 🙁
He’s also got that issue of coming to terms with his parent’s racism/favoritism.
Shameless
Thing everyone seems to forget: the semester is still going. Amber fixed his MIDTERM grade. if he doesn’t start going to math, he’s gonna bomb the final, and it won’t matter he “aced” the midterm.
thejeff
I don’t think it was even the midterm grade – just the quizzes and homework they’ve had so far.
Mike is probably in class so it’d make telling him more difficult…plus if you think about it, Mike finding out about the couple via Amber is much more fun- for us, that is1!
I started working through the list of people he should tell before Mike, but I’d gotten to “the bros Sal and Amber were beating up” and decided I should just stop.
Actually I think he plans on teaching Danny a lesson for that one time he loaned Walky his shoes! That’ll show that ukulele playing bastard a thing or two!
Laladoria
Seeing as we never actually saw him return those shoes, I choose to believe that Walky still has them purely because of his notions regarding exes. Hell, even finding out his mom used to date the Dean he was offering to help his dad fight the man.
So now Walky us skipping math AND his telecom class?
Dorothy was right: missing one class was a gateway into much worse things! next Walky will be doing cocaine using wikipedia as a source material
TBH I think the moral here is “don’t skip _hard_ classes”. I for one am super diligent and always check the syllabus to make sure I’m not missing anything important. because I take irresponsibility seriously.
Even that can be dangerous if you’re skipping most sessions for a given class.
Regalli
Yeah, besides the attendance policies (safe bet a Big Ten school has them), Walky’s also not really familiar with the material and not studying well, so he’s not compensating by reading the textbook and that means he’s gonna miss something that’ll be important for his major later.
Plus, as I’ve said upthread, having an anxiety avoidance thing in one class and then skipping another can definitely pile up. And the pile-up is not pretty. (I ended up needing an extension on three of four classes, wrote like five papers in under two weeks and read Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Adam Bede in the span of sixteen hours. Still took an F on the last class. Don’t recommend the experience AT ALL.)
171 thoughts on “Telecom”
BBCC
Ahhh, siblings.
And I see Walky’s skipping more classes now, because that only bodes well.
cbwroses
The difference is he’s skipping this class because he has it figured out, vs skipping his math class because he can’t handle failing.
Doesn’t really make it better. It’s just not an issue with his grades in this case.
BBCC
He had math figured out too until he didn’t.
Diner Kinetic
I think “don’t skip class” is a lot like “don’t do drugs”: good advice for some people generally; but ignoring said rules can be fun in moderation- skip classes because the bare minimum is a great way to achieve maximum happiness in areas you care about; smoke pot because it makes jeff sessions roll in whatever grave he sleeps in at night
Kris
I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Skipping and potentially failing classes is more serious than smoking pot. Depending on what Walky’s majoring in if anything, his math class could be a prerequisite for something else, or for instance classes cost money so he could also be blowing the funds his parents spent on tuition. (I’m assuming that. It’s even worse if he has any scholarships). Sarah doesn’t spend all her time studying because she wants to. A lot of factors that make skipping class in general a bad idea.
Clif
It’s okay; his girlfriend can fix it.
Techhead
I think the analogy is that skipping the classes where you’ve already got things figured out is like smoking pot, skipping the classes where you’re already struggling is like smoking crack.
Liliet
yep
thejeff
Smoking pot can potentially be far more serious than skipping classes. Almost entirely due to legal consequences.
Skipping classes can be a problem, but it’s not too directly linked to failing classes. I had one Chemistry class freshman year I never went to after the first week. The professor just read from the book to the huge lecture hall. I went to the lab, did the homework and the tests with no problem.
Other classes I didn’t do so well in, despite going regularly.
Skipping this one class isn’t likely to be a problem. If he makes a habit of it, then he might be in trouble.
Regalli
Yeah, but a lot of schools these days have an attendance policy built in that all classes have to observe, and said attendance policies tend to be really tight. Like, I think mine allowed two unexcused absences and started dropping grades from there. (Which, remembering that fact: THAT could be why Walky’s grade in math wasn’t salvageable according to Jason! I don’t think he missed enough to definitely fail the class, but it could make an A out of reach. Great job communicating THAT one, Jason!)
So it can be directly tied to failing these days – teachers pretty much also have to do attendance now to track it – and if it were only this one boring class* I’d say it probably wasn’t too big a deal to skip once… But Walky’s avoidance tendencies look very familiar to me. I think he might be starting to cascade.
* Two factors that I’d advise against Walky doing it, though: he’s a telecom MAJOR, meaning he’s gotta know this material (and since his cast page says he picked it because ‘tele’ means television so it was the closest thing to majoring in cartoons, I DON’T think this is like Amber and Danny in Comp 101 where they already do know everything and can safely tune out,) and Walky has a very definite Thing where he acts as if he does know everything but clearly doesn’t. It’s part of the reason he’s so screwed up in math. We have no idea what the class is like, but I do not trust Walky as a source for ‘yeah it’s easy and I have this’ and I do not trust Walky to only skip class this one time for this one subject when he’s having an anxiety avoidance reaction in another.
lightsabermario
Fun hypothetical to think about. This comic is supposed to represent IU fairly accurately, but with a sliding timeframe, if I’m not mistaken. But if real-life IU didn’t have an absence=grade reduction policy at the time DOA’s year started, but they do now, then would Walky’s grades be irrecoverable or not? And would Jason be off the hook for not informing Walky about a policy that didn’t exist at the time he could have warned him?
Regalli
If the policy was implemented before the 2017 Spring semester, or 2016 Fall (to give an extra month or two in the buffer,) then it would have been in effect by the time Jason was talking to Walky saying it was too late to course correct for an A. (Strip aired March 25, 2017.) If it wasn’t in effect then, then Jason’s line can continue to be taken at face value as ‘Jason doesn’t think Walky can improve enough despite it being pre-midterms.’ (Once again, Walky wasn’t trying to learn but Jason’s condescending manner makes him a bad tutor even with people who are trying.)
Retroactively because of the time frame, we can assume that any such policy is in the syllabus (it’s usually required to be there,) and was probably gone over in the first day while we weren’t paying attention. Neither was Walky, which is his own damn fault, but if he does bother to check the syllabus it will be there. (Don’t throw out your syllabus, kids.) I think Jason should have said ‘you can’t course correct because of the attendance policy’ if it was a thing when that conversation occurred, but Jason and Walky tend to bring out the absolute worst in each other.
BBCC
Really? Most professors where I go to school don’t bother to take attendance, especially in large intro classes. They just have too many students for it to affect their mark, especially when attendance taking is clunky (taking it via notes requires taking their notes until next day and passing around sheets leave it open to miss students, especially if a student is late but arrived).
Plus, these days, most class syllabi are online, at least if you’re enrolled in the class.
Regalli
Yeah, no, sign in sheets have gotten to be a much bigger deal – not sure what’s done for bigger lecture hall classes, but there is definitely a ‘you come in late, you come to the desk at the end’ thing as well.
And Walky could certainly check that! But realistically, will he?
ǝ snow ʍousɐ
But neither of those are as bad an idea as smoking pot in class!
jmsr7
Day. You mean day.
not someone else
It’s possible his other 101 classes are so bullshit easy it helped to lure him into a false state of security. I remember going into college having A Plan and deciding to Take School Seriously For Once… then I took English 101.
Then I started taking upper-level classes, and suddenly everything was completely different.
(Well, my situation was somewhat more complicated than Walky’s, but the point is that people acting like every class you take in college is super-serious high-level stuff is really bad preparation for the type of difficulty curves you’re actually going to hit.)
Khyrin
This. I LITERALLY SLEPT through a maths for non-majors course my first semester. I had four classes some days, scattered across the day. first started at 07:00 and the last ended at 22:00. Math was 15:00-16:30, and the professor had a very soothing drone. He DID show some concern of the “are you staying up to late?” variety, but he didn’t give a fig otherwise, since i was still setting the curve.
CJ
Wasn’t that the class where Amber was reprimanded for knowing too much?
BarerMender
That was intro to computing.
Kris
Him skipping classes might matter if he actually truly saw any negative consequences for it. Amber did scooch his grades up in the one class he was failing….Which he still hasn’t been studying for! Walky has it too easy.
Laladoria
I think he still doesn’t know that she didn’t put it back down all the way, either. I wonder how he’ll react now that he seems more calm about everything
even if it is just a false calm.thejeff
That’s not why he still hasn’t been studying for. It’s not that he has it too easy, it’s that he’s a) given up and b) has no idea how to study. He’s damn well aware of the negative consequences. He even told Amber not to change his grades.
cbwroses
Well, he hadn’t exactly given up. The two people he thought to get help from can no longer help.
One broke up with him and one became a bartender.
Kris
WARNING! This is a hot take and entirely my personal opinion, but….Walky does have it too easy. Most if not all of his problems are easily solved without him doing much of anything.
1. He apparently just breezes through his classes. When we actually witness other characters such as Dorothy, Sarah, and even Sal struggling with their work schedule and studying to actually improve their grade.
2. When he started failing he chose to ignore the problem instead of seeking help. When he finally did he ended up getting drunk with his former T.A. and guess what? His problem got solved for him whether he knows it or not. I’ll give him credit for not condoning cheating, but that doesn’t prevent the fact Amber did alter his grade for him. Remains to be seen if there’s any blow back on that. Probably not much since they could both get expelled for that and having two main characters leave the school would dramatically change the flow of the story.
3. He got a girlfriend almost immediately after starting school and when she broke up with him (but still gave him some after breakup sex or maybe they were on pause or whatever when that happened) he immediatley got another one a day later after feeling bad for like twelve hours.
4. He can apparently eat whatever he wants without working out and not gain any weight.
These are just some examples. Walky’s not a bad guy or anything even though I personally dislike him, but he does kind of just breeze through. Especially compared to other characters who struggle with issues like their sexuality, disassociative identities, being nearly date raped, grades, social stigmization from race and a criminal past, alchoholism, being assaulted by crazy parents. (Wasn’t Dina actually shot at once!?) the list goes on…Seriously these kids are all really messed up and need help!
So in my opinion he does have it too easy and the fact is there are a lot of people in the world like that. It’s not a fault of his character, but it’s something I at least think should be noted. If people have any counter arguments I’m more than willing to read them.
Makkabee
In the Walkyverse the weight thing will apparently change when he turns 23.
thejeff
Okay. I guess I can see that, though it’s not really where I was going with it. Much of it’s just not even vaguely his fault or responsibility and doesn’t really tie into negative consequences.
Several of those things seem very clearly parts of character arcs to me, not “no consequences” finish points.
1) He apparently breezes through his classes, except for the one he’s failing, because he doesn’t put in any effort. So he’s smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is.
2)I’d be absolutely shocked if Walky’s grade problems were solved by Amber’s hacking and never come back to haunt him. Nor does he even know about it, so as far as he knows he’s still failing. He’s still going to have to deal with it somehow, he’s just a little distracted right now with relationship drama.
3)It’s also pretty unlikely, given all the drama hanging over all their heads that this is going to be as simple as “Lost Dorothy. Oh well, got a new girl. All’s well.” Even if he’s riding an emotional high about it right now.
4) Can’t really argue that. That was me in college too. Didn’t last. 🙁
He’s also got that issue of coming to terms with his parent’s racism/favoritism.
Shameless
Thing everyone seems to forget: the semester is still going. Amber fixed his MIDTERM grade. if he doesn’t start going to math, he’s gonna bomb the final, and it won’t matter he “aced” the midterm.
thejeff
I don’t think it was even the midterm grade – just the quizzes and homework they’ve had so far.
BBCC
Yep, no midterm yet.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
“So…you’ve decided to have revenge sex” sounds very much like a good title for the next book. 😀
stoodmuffin
Agreed.
Makkabee
It has my vote.
*whisper whisper whisper*
What do you mean “this isn’t a democracy?”
stoodmuffin
Perfectly put.
Darkoneko
It was either telling Mike or Billie, I guess he made the right choice ?
LookingIn
Mike is probably in class so it’d make telling him more difficult…plus if you think about it, Mike finding out about the couple via Amber is much more fun- for us, that is1!
thejeff
I started working through the list of people he should tell before Mike, but I’d gotten to “the bros Sal and Amber were beating up” and decided I should just stop.
Darkoneko
ironically, Sal would be pretty high on the list
Skater Girl
The best kind of sex
Doctor_Who
Think we’ll see the Andrew Garfield poster slowly morph into Tom Holland over time?
Durandal_1707
Or Chester A. Arthur.
cbwroses
Or Dorian Grey
LookingIn
So long as it doesn’t morph into Robert Pattinson
Needfuldoer
Joyce has that covered.
Dean
Or Nermal.
karmax
And then blow away in a cloud of dust?
Nono
I think it’s kinda cute that Billie knows Walky’s class schedule.
drs
NOT THAT I CARE ABOUT YOUR LIFE BAKA
Mr D
FFS Billie stop corrupting Walky, he already has enough problems.
SailorCakes
Only some tho ;P
Cattleprod
The sliding timescale hasn’t been kind to Andrew Garfield’s relevance, has it?
Kris
Is it really revenge sex if you haven’t had the sex yet….or anyone to seek vengeance against?
King Daniel
From Billie’s perspective, Walky “should be” seeking vengeance against Dorothy. “Treat her like your enemy”, I believe she said earlier.
Kris
Actually I think he plans on teaching Danny a lesson for that one time he loaned Walky his shoes! That’ll show that ukulele playing bastard a thing or two!
Laladoria
Seeing as we never actually saw him return those shoes, I choose to believe that Walky still has them purely because of his notions regarding exes. Hell, even finding out his mom used to date the Dean he was offering to help his dad fight the man.
MatthewTheLucky
He just reads too much Scott Pilgrim.
Stellar
This is a week for great turns of phrase, the pettiness is strong with Willis this week.
Stellar
Argh “pithiness”, I am gonna smash my new phone and it’s last minute edit checks.
cbwroses
To be fair, the conversation in the strip does have some pettiness.
Maybe your phone just appreciated that aspect more.
Derek
So now Walky us skipping math AND his telecom class?
Dorothy was right: missing one class was a gateway into much worse things! next Walky will be doing cocaine using wikipedia as a source material
Bathymetheus
How do you use Wikipedia as a source of cocaine?
. . . Asking for a friend . . .
Khyrin
Print out the article using a 3d-printer. Grind result into powder.
Clif
See Cocaine – Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine
Bagge
SCHOOL MISSER!
Diner Kinetic
TBH I think the moral here is “don’t skip _hard_ classes”. I for one am super diligent and always check the syllabus to make sure I’m not missing anything important. because I take irresponsibility seriously.
vlademir1
Even that can be dangerous if you’re skipping most sessions for a given class.
Regalli
Yeah, besides the attendance policies (safe bet a Big Ten school has them), Walky’s also not really familiar with the material and not studying well, so he’s not compensating by reading the textbook and that means he’s gonna miss something that’ll be important for his major later.
Plus, as I’ve said upthread, having an anxiety avoidance thing in one class and then skipping another can definitely pile up. And the pile-up is not pretty. (I ended up needing an extension on three of four classes, wrote like five papers in under two weeks and read Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Adam Bede in the span of sixteen hours. Still took an F on the last class. Don’t recommend the experience AT ALL.)
Stephen Bierce
Lucy and Ramona…and Sunset Sam!–Mike Nesmith
Stephen Bierce
Cruisin’ through the jungles of L.A.
AeromechanicalAce
I’m pretty sure the entire physical side of Billie and Ruth’s relationship counts as revenge sex.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
Ah, but revenge against whom?
Laladoria