Chem Geek Gregor said:

I’ve been a TA and it’s not my favorite thing. It’s not the worst thing to do either, but some people like teaching and some don’t.

It sounds like she had problems with it and she also didn’t like the office politics of the university.

So they denied her tenure, probably because they didn’t think she was the best professor around and didn’t think she contributed to the department. And she goes and shoots up a meeting?

Chances are the bitch is unable to accept that sometimes things don’t go your way. She’s smart and she got into Harvard and received notoriety. She therefore assumes that everything should go her way and she should always be selected.

In other words, she thinks she’s so special that it’s okay to kill when others don’t recognize how special you are.

It’s no better than a 2-year-old throwing a fit, except two year olds don’t usually have firearms and shoot people.

I have no sympathy for her. She took three lives out of an administrative disagreement. She will probably claim some mental issue, but the only one she has is being a bitch who can’t accept that she doesn’t always get her way.

No offense intended, but being a TA is only loosely related to teaching, at least at my school (U of Windsor). Most of them can barely speak a word of English, and they’re really only there to grade papers. They supposedly only hire people who have done well in the course, but whenever I ask them questions they literally sound like they’re retarded or something. They don’t even know the answers to the most basic of questions. Ask them how to deference a pointer in C and watch them stutter and stumble out a totally wrong answer… Its only a first year course, not that difficult people. Maybe that’s just cause my school is small and not exactly high-class, but still, you’d think they’d at least interview people before they make hiring decisions.

Lets remember that not all smart people are well accomplished. Some just don’t put in the time and effort to use their full potential.

I got the impression from the coverage I’ve seen and the interviews with those around her that she was pretty smart, but seems to have been sliding down hill for three or four years.

        Gul Dukat said:

I would argue that she did not display any special brilliance. Academically, publishing 5 papers (one of which is still in press) in the last 5 years, in mid-range discipline-specific journals, is very ordinary. I regularly assess academic track records as when reading grant applications (I’m an academic myself), and a decent TR would have 30 papers in 5 years in good to decent journals. The outstanding researchers are more like 100 papers in 5 years, including top tier journals like Nature/Science/PNAS. These are the folks who always secure the grant and have no issue with securing tenure.

So, if I was on the tenure review panel I would have recommended turning it down, but on the basis of weak and inconsistent academic performance.

Yeah, well all the news articles stated that she was regarded as brilliant. Apparently some of her research was fairly advanced, but I do agree that the number of papers she published was pretty mediocre. She may have been on a losing streak in recent years, as she was well regarded by many of those who went to grad school with her.

So, if I was on the tenure review panel I would have recommended turning it down, but on the basis of weak and inconsistent academic performance.

So they denied her tenure, probably because they didn’t think she was the best professor around and didn’t think she contributed to the department. And she goes and shoots up a meeting?

Chances are the bitch is unable to accept that sometimes things don’t go your way. She’s smart and she got into Harvard and received notoriety. She therefore assumes that everything should go her way and she should always be selected. In other words, she thinks she’s so special that it’s okay to kill when others don’t recognize how special you are. It’s no better than a 2-year-old throwing a fit, except two year olds don’t usually have firearms and shoot people.

I have no sympathy for her. She took three lives out of an administrative disagreement. She will probably claim some mental issue, but the only one she has is being a bitch who can’t accept that she doesn’t always get her way.

I will reply once and briefly. The moderator has appropriately indicated that this is not a good venue for your particular topic.

Also, by the time I ever snap all of my friends will be gone and becoming successful and I’ll be stuck here suffering from stupid decisions I made from being weak and self conscious. No girl would ever want to date a loser like me, especially not start a family. I’m too fat and stupid to do anything productive – everything I’ve set out to do has never been finished because I’m a failure. If all I have are my family, that’s more depressing. You’re forced to love your family, you’re stuck with them from childhood. Only having your family just shows you’ve failed to make any valuable relationships outside of them with talent or personality.

You are describing common symptoms of depression. Your condition is treatable. You do not need to feel this way.

There was a quote from someone who survived a suicide attempt in a New Yorker article a few years ago. I don’t remember it perfectly but will offer a fair paraphrase.

He said “As soon as I jumped off that bridge, I realized that all of my problems really did have solutions – except for the fact that I had just jumped off a bridge“.

There is plenty of treatment available and you deserve it. Go get it.

        Franck said:

I know several people who are teacher and did a little teaching myself (in a corporate environment, still a dreadfull experience) and my general conclusion is that while all those people (including myself, the course was about using a tool I created) knew their field far beyond the course required level, teaching has almost nothing to do with doing it yourself.

The finest example I know is a woman who teach english basics to french preteens, as every other teacher, she spent years in general education colege then teacher school, and what did she learn in english teecher school? Mostly middle age literature and romatics, and absolutely nothing about pedagogy or dealing with those little nasty gremlins.

At every level, we need more real teachers, not people who think they are wasting their time and their talent in a classroom.

Oh sure, teaching is not an easy job and it has its own special demands. My hat is off to all the teachers who do their work well and are good at teaching in general. AS for those who just don’t have what it takes or just don’t like to teach or find the enviornment not suitable to their skills and personality, they shouldn’t be teaching. Not everyone is fit for every job.

That is still no excuse for shooting up a meeting. I don’t care how much your job doesn’t agree with you. You bite the bullet and look for a new job. Think of all the workers at McDonald’s or bagging at the super market. You think they really feel like their job is an expression of what they want to do with their life?

So she had a rude awakening and found out the hard way that she was better off in a research job than as an undergraduate professor. Boohoo! She didn’t like academic politics? Oh poor little thing!

I feel no sympathy at all.

I know several people who are teacher and did a little teaching myself (in a corporate environment, still a dreadfull experience) and my general conclusion is that while all those people (including myself, the course was about using a tool I created) knew their field far beyond the course required level, teaching has almost nothing to do with doing it yourself.

The finest example I know is a woman who teach english basics to french preteens, as every other teacher, she spent years in general education colege then teacher school, and what did she learn in english teecher school? Mostly middle age literature and romatics, and absolutely nothing about pedagogy or dealing with those little nasty gremlins.

At every level, we need more real teachers, not people who think they are wasting their time and their talent in a classroom.