S02.E09: Chapter Thirty-One

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Jane's latest parenting obstacle is sleep training Mateo, a struggle that has the Villanueva woman divided on what is the best method. At the same time, she is beginning her new job as a TA and is faced with a class full of basketball players looking for an easy A. Petra confesses all to Rafael and is determined to put her mother away for good. Rogelio's mother Liliana comes for a visit and reveals a 40 year old family secret. Meanwhile, Michael discovers the truth about Luisa's mother and new information about Rafael's mother.

[ShellsandCheese]

I hope this is the end of the triangle. Jane should go on a date with McBaskets; Gina and the actor playing him had good chemistry. And Rafael's mom being the drug lord was not surprising at all. Poor Raf.

[natyxg]

I'm confused about what they're doing with Jane's love life. It's not like I'm necessarily against her moving on from Rafael and Michael, it just feels weirdly paced and all over the place.

 

This was a weird episode.

[ddawn23]

I find it so maddening when they include the grad school in the plot because that's not how grad school works. That's not how TAing works. That's not how the first five minutes of any class ever works. And that is especially not how allegations of plagiarism work. We're supposed to believe that she had zero training beforehand-- never so much as saw a handbook. That she just got dropped into essentially teaching a class with what appears to be some control over the curriculum. That there's no syllabus, just a list of due dates on the board and jump right into discussion. There's no way obsessive planner Jane would have let that slide when she was an undergrad. She would never expect her students to.

I'm not expecting total realism, but it's hard to find the plot points compelling when they make no damn sense.

[Turtle Wexler]

Thanks, ddawn23.  I'm getting a PhD and am teaching two courses, and while I could identify with Jane's struggle to engage students, so much of those scenes had me saying, "Wait, what...?  That would never happen that way."  I'm wondering if it's a combination of, as you note, the writers not knowing how graduate school works, and also the desire to have a thread in Jane's personal life mirror (or almost mirror) something happening in her professional life.  So they end up cutting corners and doing things that make no sense. I kept thinking about how much trouble I would get into if I had done what Jane did re: McBaskets.  (And...is that prof the director/chair?  While there are people in higher ed who do things that aren't above-board, that it was him was ridiculous.)      

[natyxg]

I find it so maddening when they include the grad school in the plot because that's not how grad school works. That's not how TAing works. That's not how the first five minutes of any class ever works. And that is especially not how allegations of plagiarism work. We're supposed to believe that she had zero training beforehand-- never so much as saw a handbook. That she just got dropped into essentially teaching a class with what appears to be some control over the curriculum. That there's no syllabus, just a list of due dates on the board and jump right into discussion. There's no way obsessive planner Jane would have let that slide when she was an undergrad. She would never expect her students to.

I'm not expecting total realism, but it's hard to find the plot points compelling when they make no damn sense.

 

What I mostly wondered was where the hell the real professor was. A TA is the professor's assistant, the professor has to actually show up to teach the class, no? Maybe if she was doing a PhD she could teach classes properly, but not at a Masters' level as far as I know. She hasn't even finished her Master's.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gin and Tonic]

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Generally TAs proctor exams, teach labs (as opposed to lectures), grade, and perform other duties to assist faculty members. In some places, they do teach introductory classes and/or lead discussions, but in my experience that didn't happen until they at least progressed further into their Masters degrees.

 

I find it hard to believe that Jane, who has maybe completed a semester of graduate course work, would be conducting a lecture. 

Edited January 26, 2016 by Gin and Tonic

[Bouffe]

Poor Rafael. He cannot catch a break. I think I'm probably naive, but I thought his mom was being genuine -until the blue silk, of course. Sigh.

I actually really love Rafael and Petra as friends. Not romantically involved, but friends. It was nice. Petra cannot catch a break either. Damn.

Michael having a girlfriend surprised me, but I think it's cool. I hope it's true, and not some sort of story Michael made up to get Jane jealous.

The whole Rogelio plot about his father had me howling. Way too funny. The dinner - so NOT subtle! Lol

The sleeping plot well... It's in line with the whole thing about Jane being a mom now, but I found it a tad boring, which is weird for me as I've loved the mom plot for Jane so far.

And now what? Michael is going to save Rafael?

[possibilities]

I think they meant "assistant professor" (not "teaching assistant"). Not that that fixes it entirely, but it's the only thing I can think of that even gets the situation roughly in at least a similar galaxy to what they portrayed.

[ddawn23]

The sleeping plot fell into the same cutesy narrative structure they've done several times already: Jane has issue. Jane researches and finds method that might solve issue. Jane tries method exactly once. Method doesn't work because of course it didn't work the first time. No method to solve sleep issues or breastfeeding problems or whatever ever works the first time. Jane declares method a failure, does research to find a second method, lather, rinse, repeat. Frankly, it's lazy. It gives the episode easy tension, the everybody-has-different-opinions-about-this dialogue practically writes itself, and it provides a nice little bow to put on the end of the episode. Oh look, Mateo's finally asleep! Oh look, it's just clusterfeeding! Oh look, oh look. I suppose it's only to be expected considering our heroine's passion is writing in a genre notorious for its formulaic plots. I really really love this show, but this is aggravating. Arrrgh.

[ddawn23]

I think they meant "assistant professor" (not "teaching assistant"). Not that that fixes it entirely, but it's the only thing I can think of that even gets the situation roughly in at least a similar galaxy to what they portrayed.

I think that makes it worse-- a graduate student given a tenure-track professorship at the last minute at the beginning of her third semester? I think the writers probably thought they were covering their bases by having her mention to the class that she was their section leader, implying that the class involves a large lecture with the professor and then smaller discussion sections with TAs, but she didn't run the class like that was the case. And were that the case she wouldn't have final say on McBaskets's grade.

[Spooky Kitty]

As others have mentioned, Jane's TA plot was oddly done, and not reflective of reality beyond the usual soapiness that one expects from the show.  I don't need everything to be realistic, but if the show is going to follow Jane through graduate school, getting the basic idea of how it works would probably be beneficial to the show as a whole.  Jane grading the papers didn't shock me (I've done that myself as a TA), but surely the TAs for the class would interact with the professor and take their cues from the professor, who would have ultimate authority over grades when the whole kerfuffle happened.  It's also odd that an isolated "F" on one paper would affect sports eligibility--wouldn't that be an overall GPA issue?  I wasn't aware the school would even care about an early semester grade.  In any case, I've seen the whole "someone tries to get the teacher to let the jocks pass regardless of them actually doing the academic work" plot on a variety of shows, and I'm not really desperate to see it again, so I'm not sure why the show was contorting itself to make it happen right now.

 

I did like that Jane was able to solve her problem for herself--it's nice to see her acting like the plucky heroine again.  I feel like these motherhood plots have pushed her more toward the neurotic/uptight aspects of her personality.  I'm hoping we do get a break from the "baby issue of the week" type plots for a little while, not to mention the varying forms of maternal guilt that keep coming up.

 

There was some good stuff this week as well.  Once again, the Rogelio plot was a gem, and all of the family interactions with the Villanuevas, Rogelio, and his family were great.  It's fun to see all these new family dynamics unfolding.  I am also interested to see where the Petra plot goes from here, as well as Rafael's plot with his mother.  Prior to this week, I didn't see that twist coming, but it's nice to see some actual movement on the whole "Mutter" plot and have it tie back to a main character.  It looks like Rafael is going to be the one in jeopardy for the immediate future, at least.

 

Lastly, there is the whole plot with Michael having a new girlfriend and Jane deciding to move on.  Of course as soon as Jane decides she wants Michael again, he's not available.  It makes logical sense on Michael's part, given the finality that Jane expressed about their last parting, but I'm not liking it right now.  I can't help but feel like this is all just to keep Michael and Jane apart for a while, and my guess is (I have no information on spoilers, I'm just speculating) that we'll get a placeholder guy or two in the middle there for Jane before we get back to some permutation of the love triangle.  I kind of regret that I enjoy the pairing of Michael and Jane (not to mention his bromance with Rogelio), because the show seems like it prefers to eternally tease the idea of them being together rather than paying it off at all.  Not that they've done a whole lot better with the Rafael-Jane pairing this season either. 

[omgsowicked]

Whoa, I gasped when Elena shoved that needle into Rafael's neck! Sad for Rafael, finally giving her a chance, only to find out she's a criminal (just like his stepmom) and sad for Luisa as well, being hopeful about seeing her mother, only to find out she died. At least Luisa's mom didn't seem to be tied to any criminal activity, so she can feel good about that, I guess.

 

The Mateo/sleep plot was boring, since it was so typical for this show. Neurotic Jane, researching like crazy, can't leave things alone for five minutes without panicking. And then the big family celebration in the end. I get that it's her personality, I get it. But holy crap, dude!

 

I agree with you @ShellsandCheese, sign me up for Jane/McBaskets, lol. He's too much of a stereotype, too dumb for her (and inappropriate, too) but they had really nice chemistry. I also thought it was strange to see her heading a class after a semester or two, and with no supervision. I don't know anything about grad school so I'm glad to read here that I wasn't wrong for thinking that.

 

 

I was so happy that Petra got justice... until Magda and the narrator implied she'd be in big trouble one day. Really worried that something will happen to her twins because of whatever Magda manages to do. I really hope Petra doesn't visit her in jail or try to reach out to her again, and I hope Magda being out of her life means she can reach out to Jane again.

[Lady Calypso]

Hmm, maybe Jane needs a guy like McBaskets, even if it's not actually him. I think she needs a relationship that gives her the potential to loosen up and have some fun. Not that it might actually work, but the potential is nice. But seeing as the actor looks as old as Gina does, if not older, I guess the guy could be around Jane's age so it could work. It would just be highly inappropriate for them to start dating, hence maybe a guy not in her class.

 

And yeah, the TA thing bothered me as well; I'm not a TA, but I'm in university and have had TAs and there are issues. I can buy that it's some sort of section/tutorial. The class is definitely small enough to be that, especially if it's a first year class (the 105 implies/says that it is). I think if we had seen Jane meet up with the professor, or actually mention the professor by name, it would have been easier. Also....would students really get readings to do over the break? Is it a class where it lasts all year, or is it just a semester long class and Jane expected them to do the reading over the break from the syllabus? I'm a Canadian university student, so I guess I wouldn't understand the American system. And yeah, Jane could have some control over grades, but she would have to be in contact with the professor. And yes, she would 1100% have to report that plagiarism to the main professor. Not to mention it's the beginning of the school year so unless McBaskets has been failing hardcore since last semester, one 'F' shouldn't technically make him ineligible to play a game, unless his coach is really that strict...in which case, McBaskets should have known better. 

 

I'm definitely nitpicking at this point...but I can say that I actually enjoyed Jane/McBasket's little game. It was fun and Jane actually wasn't thinking about her damned love triangle or Mateo for once. 

 

The episode was good, actually. I love Rafael/Petra. It's nice to see Rafael have a plot outside of Jane (although I STILL really want a solo Rafael/Mateo episode). And seeing him and Petra reconnect as friends is so nice to see. There may not have been much of them, but I like what I saw. 

 

Very little Michael too, but it's nice to see that he has a girlfriend now. At least he's not moping around anymore, so I'm happy that he gets to be happy...for a while. I'm not delusional; his girlfriend will somehow be connected to something evil and sinister. 

 

Having the family scenes was good, but shouldn't Jane have been dealing with Mateo not sleeping through the night already? Eh, I know, it's me being picky, and it was fairly funny. I liked the Rogelio storyline as well. 

 

And...I really should have seen this Mutter storyline coming. Really, it's like the Sin Rostro one. But alas, I did not.

[butterly17]

McBaskets as a possible love interest?!  No.  What a huge tool.

[Mystical chick]

I feel like the fun has gone out of the show (for me, anyway) in Season 2. It's like they took all the good stuff from S1, amplified it 30000000 times and are running around in circles with it.

 

It's likely me - when I binge-watch something, I'm in that energy flow. When the breaks are month(s) long, I lose the energy and the flow and have to reorient myself to it and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Here, it doesn't.

 

Still, I'll watch because I like them all but it's not the same as it was for me.

[Primetimer]

Tara's not a crackpot. She just thinks Alba's stated tolerance in some areas might presage a change of attitude on others! Eventually!

Read the story

[Irlandesa]

I'm used to shows taking liberties with how things are really done because they want to tell a story within a specific time frame and make it interesting.  I know I enjoy shows depicting things I know little about (law, medicine) that do drive the professionals crazy so I try not to be too judgmental when it comes up against something I know well.

 

But the reason this irritated me is that they had other ways to tell this story that would make sense.  Jane has a teaching degree.  The show could have moved this whole scenario into a high school rather than a university.  If a school has an extra class or two, they will sometimes hire someone just for that.  And they could have plopped her in mid-semester so having a paper would make sense.  High schools also have high pressure sports situations.  And they also might monitor their student athletes grades a bit more closely than in university.

 

But a student who is only a semester or two into a masters degree acting as a TA was a stretch.  From my (biased/limited) experience, teaching TAs usually have their masters.  Often they're pursuing their PhD. 

 

I am not a huge fan of kids.  I've watched shows with kids allegedly at the center like Raising Hope and Grandfathered but even they didn't have as many child rearing plots as JTV seems to have.  I know mothers who watch this and see themselves in these stories so I guess it works for them.  I find it horribly boring.  And it irks me that they never once thought to bring Rafael into this plot.  It doesn't have to be a lot but what about a phone conversation?  Like maybe the one thing that pushes her over the edge to abuela's side is learning that this is what Rafael does when he has Mateo?

 

When Rafael's mother randomly appeared at the police station an episode or two ago, I knew there was more in store for her.  I'm intrigued somewhat and also thinking this is a bit random. I will say that the mysterious location of the thumb drive is the first "mystery plot" this season that has intrigued me since there was the question of "who is Sin Rostro?"

 

Poor Luisa.  Her mother isn't Mutter but she's dead.  And it sounds like she was alive for most of the years she thought she was dead.

[gesundheit]

What I mostly wondered was where the hell the real professor was. A TA is the professor's assistant, the professor has to actually show up to teach the class, no? Maybe if she was doing a PhD she could teach classes properly, but not at a Masters' level as far as I know. She hasn't even finished her Master's.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The setup was fine -- TAs often teach discussion sections on their own (exactly what that appeared to be) and are entirely responsible for grading papers. And yes, even in their first semester. (It's also worth noting that Jane is in an MFA program, not MA or MS. An MFA is considered a terminal degree like a PhD and is a university teaching credential.)

 

What is not the case is the idea that how to handle plagiarism would be at the discretion of the TA. She'd report it to the course professor who would be contractually obliged to deal with it. And, as mentioned above, universities that coddle their athletes academically are not going to care that much about one paper. This ethics nightmare would not be a grad student's call.

 

I thought last night's episode was pretty average, which is better than a great episode for 90% of TV's offerings. But it did set up some interesting things for the future. 

 

I feel a little bad for whatever set of triplets they hire to play Petra and Rafael's kids. They will never be as cute as Mateo!

[Enginerd]

I really enjoyed this episode, starting right from the narrator's cheerleader-esque "Ready? Okay!" He is always hilarious.

Jane's class shenanigans were a little odd, but I guess not completely outside the realm of possibility. I was a TA as a master's student, and graded papers on my own and sometimes had to give the lecture. This was under the direction of a professor, though. However, I have definitely heard stories about schools that, like, really, really value their sports teams, to the extent of letting them get away with anything and everything and specifically setting them up to skirt the normal rules of academic conduct, soooooo...I can almost give that a pass. This class seemed to have been set up by athlete-worshiping administrators specifically to give the jocks an easy passing grade...so why have an actual professor teach it? Hand it off to a grad student who's so eager for the income that she'll go along with the program. The only part that isn't believable to me is that Jane wouldn't immediately report the plagiarism. She didn't know what a joke this class is supposed to be.

I liked Jane playing basketball, but I think she should be taking notes on all the nonsense going on at this school to write an expose or a thinly veiled novel. And no way should she date McBaskets. She doesn't need a relationship with a lazy entitled irresponsible dumbass who is also her student. Although she should certainly consider other options.

Poor Rafael. The best relationships he's ever had in his life seem to be with the mothers of his babies...one of whom cheated on him and used his sperm without his permission, the other of whom has to always be right and has little use for him (not that he didn't earn some of her distrust). All his parental figures are criminals, his sister made a mess of his business and his personal life, his best friend had an affair with his wife. His entire life is always so shaky. What excellent preparation to help Petra with her similar problems. Now if he could just get HIS mother carted off to prison.

Baby issues plots don't interest me much, but I did find the sports coverage of it entertaining. Also, Alba and Xiomara are way too involved. Why did they all need to be up? Pop in some earplugs and go back to sleep. Let Jane deal with it as she sees fit. Alba's need to prove Jane wrong doesn't seem like a great way to help Jane develop her own parenting skills.

[tennisgurl]

I want to see Jane used sports to explain more classic novel plots. 

 

Poor Rafael. He finally opens up to his mom, and, of course, she is a criminal mastermind who was just using him. Its a pretty sad state of affairs when his best relationship right now is with Petra. 

 

Speaking of Petra, I was so happy she wouldn't have to go to jail, and then the narrator had to ruin it by saying she would regret it! Give the poor woman a break!

 

The sports commenting on Mateo sleeping made that whole plot work for me.

 

The TA stuff is weird, but I am not letting it bug me. The closest it got to bugging me was the plagiarizing stuff. That is a HUGE deal in colleges, and can lead to possible explosion in some cases. If a teacher didn't report it, they would be in big trouble.  The narrator getting all mad about the state of higher ed made me smile, as a grad student studying higher education. 

Edited January 26, 2016 by tennisgurl

[Dizzychickstar]

This episode kind of felt like filler or set up to me. Didn't mind the baby sleep plot, but it could have def been wrapped up in one SportsCenter interlude since it really just boiled down to guilt which I totally get. Thought it was strange that Jane and Raph had no contact at all. Did I miss something? This epi was cute, but this is a show that has made me cry and watch with a koolaid grin on the whole time, so I expect more. Glad M has a girlfriend. She looks Jane-esque. Was surprised by Luisa & M's partner connecting. Keeping up my hopes for next week, but I binged this show first so 1 epi at a time was a hard restart like someone posted up thread.

[Irlandesa]

A stuff is weird, but I am not letting it bug me. The closest it got to bugging me was the plagiarizing stuff. That is a HUGE deal in colleges, and can lead to possible explosion in some cases. If a teacher didn't report it, they would be in big trouble. 

As someone who works in higher ed in an area somewhat tangentially related to issues of academic integrity, the one thing that struck me was that she didn't discuss it with her supervising professor---assuming she had one.  Otherwise?  People get away with plagiarism quite a bit.  And professors don't turn in people they catch plagiarizing/cheating all. the. time. There are many reasons.  Sometimes it's because the case goes on to a separate department to take the student through the university's process and the professor isn't given an update if anything happened beyond whatever grade the prof gives them.  Some think the students either don't know plagiarism or are soft hearted enough to give them a second chance.  Students can get into a lot of hot water if they're caught plagiarizing.  I don't know of any prof who has gotten in trouble for not turning in someone. 

[mrsbagnet]

 

Baby issues plots don't interest me much, but I did find the sports coverage of it entertaining. Also, Alba and Xiomara are way too involved. Why did they all need to be up? Pop in some earplugs and go back to sleep. Let Jane deal with it as she sees fit. Alba's need to prove Jane wrong doesn't seem like a great way to help Jane develop her own parenting skills.

 

It's true that Xo and Alba could have just stayed out of it. I was still more annoyed with Jane in this scenario, though. Why does each generation think that they invented sex and parenting? Alba has been alive for a long time, and she has raised two children. So Jane believes a book over her? If Alba had been a terrible or abusive mother, then I could understand Jane disregarding her, and I know that it's hard to listen to your baby cry. But what are our moms and grandmas for, if not to advise us? It just seemed like a waste of everyone's time (including Mateo's) for her not to at least try Alba's method.

 

The sports commentators at least made the storyline interesting, and my favorite moment was Alba opening the door to find Jane asleep and Mateo sitting up, wide awake.

[twoods]

I agree that the sports commentators made the storyline work- I'm tired of the crazy type A mom storylines. Probably the next crazy Jane scenario will be her pressuring Mateo to crawl or walk.

Poor Raf keeps getting crapped on. Guy can't catch a break. Glad that Michael moved on but Jane was a little harsh unfriending him. I wish she was single for a while instead of throwing her into another relationship.

Nice twist with Rogelio's mom knowing about his dad being gay for 40 years.

[psychnerd]

I was in grad school (albeit a different type of program than Jane -- PhD in psychology at a large state university), so just chiming in. Take this with the bias/understanding that I can only speak to the experiences I know of as someone who went through a PhD (not MFA or MA) program at the university that I attended (and also the experiences I know of through friends in other PhD programs at the universities they attended, which were largely identical).

 

(1) Not at all weird to teach the entire class. I taught "Intro to [specific Psychology Subfield]" for several years as a "TA." I taught 2 sections of 50 students each, entirely on my own. Well. There were 12 sections and 6 of us who worked as TAs, teaching 2 sections of the class each (not discussion sections or labs, mind you -- sections meaning different time slots for the class, which was a typical Intro Course Powerpoint Slide Lots of Info Survey Course sorta deal). There was a "course supervisor" who was a PhD holding professor, but that person had 0 to do with the class. All she did was decide what textbook would be used and be the person who would act as the "higher up" PhD authority figure should something ever need to escalate to the level where she would need to be involved (e.g., yes, a plagiarism accusation...I wouldn't technically have to check with her before accusing a student of plagiarism, but I would likely notify her before speaking to the student just to make sure she felt comfortable with what I was saying, to shield myself from liability or consequences if something went wrong, basically). 99.9% of my students never met her or even knew what her name was. My name showed up on the course list when they went to register for the class, and my name was the only one they ever saw during the course of the semester. I designed the lectures, taught them, designed the quizzes, administered them, graded them, and assigned final grades, entirely on my own with no consultation with anyone else. This was what I was supposed to do, and this was very, very common -- more common than not. Which brings me to...

 

(2) Not at all weird to start doing this pretty early on...even as early as your first semester. (It's the #1 way that grad students get funding, so yeah, you usually do have to start pretty much right away). Your first couple years you might be a grading TA, where you do nothing except grade papers/tests, if you get lucky...but, you could also be the type of TA I was, where you teach the whole damn class. I have friends who were thrown into teaching classes that they had never even *taken* as undergrads, during their 1st or 2nd year in grad school. They just had to read the whole book and figure out how the heck to teach it during the 2-3 weeks between when we got our TA assignments and the first day of class. It happens. A *LOT* more than you realize. 

 

(3) We were called TAs because we were grad students. That's the term that was always used for grad students, regardless of the specific requirements of the position/class (again, I was a "TA," even though I was the only one who ever lectured, graded, met with them for office hours, interacted with them, etc.). Jane would 100% not be called an "assistant professor," because that's the term used for PhD-holding professors who have already completed graduate school and possibly also 1 or more post-docs and are now full-on professor professors. It only gets the qualifier "assistant" because you move up to associate and/or full professor once you get tenure.

 

Sorry if this is way too off-topic. But as a grad student, there are some things I get frustrated about in their portrayals...but there are also clearly some things that others seem to think they're getting wrong that they're not. Which can be just as annoying.

 

(But the idea that a college course would have any sort of "summer reading" or "winter break reading" for a class that hadn't even started yet was bonkers.)

[Phei]

I mostly watch for Rogelio and Jane's grandmother these days, Jane is just annoying to me, it's not someone I would want to befriend IRL so it's hard to like her on the show. I find her too anal and irritating, people like her drive me crazy, like relax and unwind, life's too short. Plot twists are still entertaining so I'll keep watching for now.

[AudienceofOne]

Poor Rafael. I know I read a comment somewhere that in telenovela's the rich hot guy has to suffer to prove his worthiness as a potential suitor. But, damn. Give the guy a break already. After last week's character assassination that I still don't believe happened, we get this? And where was he in the 'sleep' conversation. Still Mateo's Dad, right?

 

I'm not American and so my knowledge of your education system is limited. But she's at "grad school", right? These are all post-grad courses? Why would they have dumb jocks who are coasting in them? I mean, it was fun but silly. Even for this show.

[possibilities]

Jane is in graduate school. The "dumb jocks who were coasting" are undergrads. Typically, graduate students teach courses with undergrads as their students. So Jane is their teacher and the jocks are her undergraduate students.

[AudienceofOne]

Ah, makes sense. Of course her position is in an undergrad course. That actually makes more sense.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I wasn't a huge fan of the whole Mateo sleep plot, but one of the good things to come out of it was Alba convincing Jane to let him cry. When Jane was talking about how selfish she was being for wanting to sleep so that she would be rested for class, I wanted Alba to point out that she was also being selfish because she doesn't want to hear Mateo cry. I mean, no sane person actually wants to hear a baby cry but Jane was letting her guilt interfere with all of the sleep training theories she tried because she couldn't last even five minutes if he cried. Of course mothers don't want their little ones to cry, but that doesn't mean you have to run in and pick the kid up every time he starts crying.

Poor Rafael. He finally gives his mom a chance to explain herself and she drugs him! As if he didn't already have enough reason to have mommy issues.

On the plus side, I like the non-romantic friendship between him and Petra.

Re: Jane's duties as a TA - I attended more than one one college because I transferred and I now work at a different university so I have had a lot of different experiences with TAs. The title TA can mean different things which vary from school to school. Sometimes it means a grad student who is assisting a professor with a class. In that case, the professor is the one listed as teaching the course and usually does most of the lecturing. For a small class, the professor may have only one TA. For a larger class, the professor may have several TAs. In cases like this, the duties can range from grading papers, holding office hours, running the mandatory section discussions, proctoring exams, setting up lab equipment before class starts, etc. That's the most common type of TA that I've seen. In some departments, it's mandatory to TA at least once while you're a grad student.

There are other TA situations I've encountered though. At one school, the freshman writing courses were taught solely by grad students from various humanities departments. They were given guidelines beforehand but they were responsible for everything. They chose what books the students would read, they set the syllabus for the term, they taught the class every day, they graded all the papers, and their name was listed in the course catalog as the teacher. There was no supervising professor who was the "real" teacher of the course. The TAs reported to the director of the freshman writing program.

In some rare cases, I have also seen undergrad TAs. These are students who have already taken the course in question and received an A. As TAs, their duties were to attend lecture and then grade midterms, finals, and papers.

On 1/25/2016 at 10:41 PM, possibilities said:

I think they meant "assistant professor" (not "teaching assistant"). Not that that fixes it entirely, but it's the only thing I can think of that even gets the situation roughly in at least a similar galaxy to what they portrayed.

No, an assistant professor is a professor position, meaning you are a faculty member. At a university, most professor positions require a completed PhD (or a master's degree if it's a field that doesn't normally offer PhDs). This is a tenure track position, not a "hey, this grad student needs to earn some extra money to pay her tuition" kind of job. Being hired as an assistant professor would require a job search meaning the hiring committee for the department would interview a ton of people from all over the country before choosing someone. If you start on the lowest level of the tenure track, you are hired as an assistant professor and in a few years you become an associate professor, then a few years after that you become a full professor.

On 1/26/2016 at 2:47 PM, Irlandesa said:

As someone who works in higher ed in an area somewhat tangentially related to issues of academic integrity, the one thing that struck me was that she didn't discuss it with her supervising professor---assuming she had one.  Otherwise?  People get away with plagiarism quite a bit.  And professors don't turn in people they catch plagiarizing/cheating all. the. time. There are many reasons.  Sometimes it's because the case goes on to a separate department to take the student through the university's process and the professor isn't given an update if anything happened beyond whatever grade the prof gives them.  Some think the students either don't know plagiarism or are soft hearted enough to give them a second chance.  Students can get into a lot of hot water if they're caught plagiarizing.  I don't know of any prof who has gotten in trouble for not turning in someone. 

When Mr. EB was a TA, one of the term papers he graded was obviously plagiarized. He brought it to the professor's attention who wanted to give the student the benefit of the doubt. The professor chose not to report it so it didn't go any further. At the same university, there were students who were suspended for a term for plagiarism.

On 1/29/2016 at 2:23 AM, psychnerd said:

(2) Not at all weird to start doing this pretty early on...even as early as your first semester. (It's the #1 way that grad students get funding, so yeah, you usually do have to start pretty much right away). Your first couple years you might be a grading TA, where you do nothing except grade papers/tests, if you get lucky...but, you could also be the type of TA I was, where you teach the whole damn class. I have friends who were thrown into teaching classes that they had never even *taken* as undergrads, during their 1st or 2nd year in grad school. They just had to read the whole book and figure out how the heck to teach it during the 2-3 weeks between when we got our TA assignments and the first day of class. It happens. A *LOT* more than you realize. 

(3) We were called TAs because we were grad students. That's the term that was always used for grad students, regardless of the specific requirements of the position/class (again, I was a "TA," even though I was the only one who ever lectured, graded, met with them for office hours, interacted with them, etc.). Jane would 100% not be called an "assistant professor," because that's the term used for PhD-holding professors who have already completed graduate school and possibly also 1 or more post-docs and are now full-on professor professors. It only gets the qualifier "assistant" because you move up to associate and/or full professor once you get tenure.

Just wanted to give you a high five for your succinct explanation!