Why I Left Private Tutoring — My Wyzant Story and Academic Integrity

Based on the supplied transcript. Punctuation and paragraph breaks have been added, with repeated fillers and false starts reduced for readability. The platform name has been standardized to Wyzant. Personal recollections, allegations, opinions, and quoted statements remain attributed to the speaker and are not independently verified here.

Good morning, humans. The professor’s in the house. Yes, I was the top tutor on Wyzant for math.

I stopped tutoring physics after about a year because I realized you can’t tutor someone in physics if they don’t read the textbook. If they read it, they don’t need a tutor. That’s what I realized quickly.

I primarily tutored calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, combinations of those courses, and higher material.

I started around 2012. They used to give you something like $200 for getting a new student. Whoever ran the company knew how to start a business.

For those thinking you don’t need college for business, you need an education. I know successful self-employed people with college educations and others without them who haven’t succeeded.

Business isn’t my strength. I attended business courses for a couple of semesters and worked in sales for years, but I’m a thinker and problem solver.

I watched Oppenheimer, and someone said he couldn’t manage a hamburger stand. I thought, “That’s like me.” Discover time travel but struggle to balance a checkbook.

I want to share this because young college students ask why I speak so aggressively. You’re in what I call the Santa Claus stage.

I think chemicals released while your body and brain grow prevent pain and induce fantasy-like thoughts. They usually flush out around 24, when your brain finishes growing.

I’m not a neurologist. This is a conclusion I’ve reached through observations and personal research. I call it the Santa Claus phase: you believe fairy tales and think arithmetic is mathematics.

That’s why you think AI is good—it does arithmetic for you. I show you mathematics. You need arithmetic, but that’s what you spent your school years doing.

I began on Wyzant in 2012. My sales experience helped me succeed, along with speaking English clearly.

I asked people why they chose me. Some said, “I don’t want to admit this, but you were the first white person.” They weren’t talking about Black–white racism; they were struggling to understand professors from other countries.

Many professors are foreign because they weren’t raised with the same distractions. They had books and study rather than all the gadgets and entertainment.

People ask how earlier generations discovered mathematics. I joke that they didn’t have television or condoms: do mathematics or breed. Studying mathematics also often required wealth, servants, and time away from farming.

I got banned from Wyzant, and I did it on purpose. I had been a top tutor from 2012 into the pandemic.

I used to have 30 to 40 hours of tutoring weekly at $100 to $250 per hour. I made six figures working part of the year. It was a great arrangement.

Years earlier, my professor told me I was violating the code of conduct. He had worked for NASA and tried to explain that I didn’t understand what I was doing.

I told him what students now tell me: “This is modern education.” Looking back, I see it as another form of cheating, with AI a faster version.

I tutored for years. I completed homework, exams, and online courses for students—anything to pay my bills so I could keep studying.

I selfishly prioritized studying mathematics. I didn’t want a job that took time away from learning.

I took hundreds of students’ courses. They contacted me through Wyzant, gave me their logins, and I completed their MyMathLab or WebAssign courses from start to finish.

Neither they nor I should have been allowed to continue at university for that. The connection was made through Wyzant.

Over the summer, I took courses for students. During fall and spring, I tutored one-on-one. They brought homework, and I solved it in detail and prepared them for the exam questions.

One student in Florida was failing vector calculus near the end of the semester. Her father hired me for hours every day and spent about $5,000 over two weeks. She went from an F to a B-plus.

He called me the Yoda of multivariable calculus. I thought, “I know how to help people cheat.”

Around 2020, mathematics and physics really clicked for me. I understood what my professor, who had worked on the Apollo missions, had been trying to tell me.

I hadn’t respected his advice. I was about 28 then and still a child in that sense. It took time to develop integrity.

I try not to lie, but I’ve done foolish things too. There are things I don’t want to discuss, but if someone genuinely wanted to know, I would tell them.

As you get older, lies and secrets become a weight. I don’t want that. If someone wanted every detail, I would tell them—though they’d have to pay a lot.

Some students admire me but want a reason to listen, an excuse to have integrity.

Wyzant’s CEO emailed me saying I was in the top 1% of more than 100,000 tutors across subjects. They also used my photograph in Google advertising.

Before the pandemic, students hired me for regular weekly sessions throughout a semester. When take-home exams became common, those sessions disappeared.

Instead, I received repeated requests: “Will you take my exam for me?”

It seemed to me that Wyzant changed its algorithm to match students with people willing to take exams. Can I prove that? No. That’s how it appeared to me.

I turned Wyzant off because I wouldn’t take exams anymore. I had recognized the errors in my behavior.

When I reactivated later, tutoring returned somewhat to normal, but I felt I couldn’t get more than about ten hours weekly.

My personal interpretation was that spreading students among more tutors made the company more money. Can I prove it? No. I’m describing my experience.

I’m grateful it pushed me to leave. I believe that experience happened so I could deliver this message to you.

At the end of my tutoring career, I was teaching linear algebra to an 18-year-old woman. We had conversations I found extraordinary. She was also a talented ballet dancer.

I was around my mid-30s, roughly twice her age. To me, the attraction centered on the conversations and shared interest in advanced knowledge.

I struggle to have those conversations even with older adults studying these subjects. With her, I could.

I knew I needed to stop tutoring. My professor had planted that warning years earlier, and it had grown into something I couldn’t ignore.

I knew Wyzant’s policies and had lost respect for the company. I still had the student’s email, but I deliberately sent a romantic message through the platform.

I confessed my love because I expected to be banned the next day. I thought perhaps something might develop between us, but otherwise the account would be closed.

I wanted the ban because earning money this way had become addictive. I could sit and do mathematics for a few hours and earn a couple thousand dollars.

I knew I needed to walk away and might not resist returning. So I sent the message through Wyzant: “You’re the most beautiful girl in the world. I love you,” and described our conversations.

Then I was blocked and banned. I did it intentionally.

If you wonder why I object to tutoring, it’s because I watched students pass with help and then leave college when they couldn’t continue independently.

I tried to show everyone how to use the textbook. Out of perhaps a thousand students, maybe two followed that advice and studied independently.

Partway through my career, I stopped accepting math, physics, and engineering majors. Parents begged me to help, but I had watched students struggle repeatedly.

I also saw wealthy students tutored through their degrees who still live with their parents.

Tutoring is like someone helping lift your weights at the gym while you pretend to lift them. You aren’t developing the strength yourself.

I did this professionally for more than a decade. If you’re a math, physics, or engineering student who needs a tutor, I think you should leave the degree.

I’m trying to help, not insult you. What happens when you graduate and need to do a job independently? An employer wants the person who can do the work, not the tutor who did it.

Parents need to recognize this too. Buying a child’s way through engineering or medicine for bragging rights is harmful.

When parents force children into those careers, it’s dangerous for everyone. Stop tormenting them to support your ego.

“Somebody needs to execute you. There’s something wrong with you. Your bloodline needs to be exterminated. You are disrupting society.”

I believe only about one in a hundred who attempt engineering end up working in it. You don’t improve that by encouraging everyone; you improve it by recognizing who isn’t suited for the field.

If you need a tutor or AI to learn mathematics, I don’t think you’re qualified for mathematics, physics, or engineering. If you pirate a solution manual, you’re qualified for prison.

I didn’t download pirated material myself, but I accepted many PDFs from a friend who did. I’m equally guilty.

I’m both a hypocrite and not one. I changed. Making money dishonestly was more comfortable than my life now, but I can’t return to it.

I helped students do wrong. Without me, some couldn’t have done it, so I may have been worse.

That’s the Wyzant story. Yes, the student was an 18-year-old woman with whom I felt I could genuinely converse.

People accuse me of being a pervert. For me, it was about what was inside and whether I wanted to listen to her. I rarely want to listen to someone talk, but I wanted to listen to her.

I joked that our child would have cured cancer by 18. It’s rare for me to meet someone I can talk to.

I don’t have many people to discuss these things with. People have ideals and insist on their own views. She brought me peace.

I needed to leave Wyzant, so I took a chance: perhaps she would say yes, but I expected to be banned.

If she hears this, she’s probably married now. She was special.

Find me a woman who can discuss advanced mathematics and physics. It isn’t about age to me; it’s about wanting to hear what she says.

I have friends, but I don’t associate much. I feel I’ve moved toward truth while others remain caught in lies, and she stood out.

That’s what happened with Wyzant.

I’ve seen hundreds of former students unable to get jobs because they weren’t prepared. They blame the job market, but they cheated through their degrees.

They’re overqualified for some jobs on paper and underqualified for work in their field.

A retailer sees a physics degree and says, “Apply to NASA.” NASA sees how you write and doesn’t want you.

NASA says on its application page that if you used AI to learn math or English, don’t apply. “We’ll know. We’re NASA.”

You think you can sit in your room cheating, drinking energy drinks, and vaping and somehow beat NASA. That’s the Santa Claus zone—fantasy.

That’s why I tell you to listen to an adult or mentor rather than follow yourself into a wall.

I went through this, and I believe God put me through it because I could deliver the message. I believe I was chosen to help you.

That’s my two cents. Have a nice day.

Author Jonathan David recounts his private tutoring career and explains why he now emphasizes independent textbook study. The video combines personal admissions, recollections of working through Wyzant, and strong opinions about academic preparation.

His Tutoring Background

Jonathan describes beginning around 2012 and primarily tutoring calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and related subjects. He recalls substantial demand, high earnings, and recognition from the platform. These career details are presented as his personal account.

Admissions About Academic Work

Jonathan states that he completed homework, examinations, and online courses for students, including using their account credentials. He describes later recognizing that this behavior conflicted with academic integrity and deciding to stop.

A Change in Perspective

A professor’s earlier warning becomes a recurring theme. Jonathan says he eventually understood the distinction between obtaining a passing result for someone and helping that person develop the ability to work independently.

Pandemic-Era Experiences

Jonathan recalls receiving requests to complete take-home examinations and experiencing changes in his tutoring workload. He offers interpretations of the platform’s matching system while explicitly acknowledging that he cannot prove those interpretations.

His Account of the Ban

Jonathan says he deliberately sent a romantic message to an adult student through Wyzant because he expected it to result in his removal. He describes the resulting ban as a way to prevent himself from returning to a source of income he felt compelled to leave.

Independent Study & Professional Readiness

His central educational message is that students need to develop their own mathematical reading, reasoning, and communication skills. He argues that completing a degree without those abilities can leave a graduate poorly prepared for independent professional work.

This summary reports the speaker’s account. It does not establish his claims about Wyzant, neuroscience, employment statistics, criminal consequences, or NASA policy. Completing assessed work for someone is distinct from tutoring permitted by a course’s rules.