A Rutgers University professor was suspended with pay last month after telling students he was assigned to teach a subject he knew nothing about. If you suspected your high school English teacher had never read Hamlet when she was surprised Mel Gibson died, well, there you go.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (which, alas, is behind an evil paywall), anthropology professor Robert Trivers claims he was assigned to teach a class called "Human Aggression" last semester, despite having absolutely no knowledge of the subject. In his first lecture, he reportedly told students he would do his best to learn the material with them, which seems to be what got him in trouble. Should have used freeexampapers.com like the rest of us, sir.
In an interview with student-run newspaper The Daily Targum last month, Trivers said he was suspended for getting students involved. "I complained right away and repeatedly that I know very little about the subject,” he said. “You would think the University would show a little respect for my teaching abilities on subjects that I know about and not force me to teach a course on a subject that I do not at all master." Trivers regularly teaches a course on social evolution, though that class has been handed to a colleague in light of the suspension. "This is painful to me to have that course yanked from me, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the matter under dispute," he said.
The university tells us they cannot comment on Trivers's suspension, as it is a "personnel matter." Meanwhile, it turns out this isn't the first time Trivers has gotten into trouble—he was reportedly banned from campus temporarily in 2012 after getting into serious confrontations with other professors—so perhaps he knows a little more about "human aggression" than he's letting on.
