<i>This question is one that I asked, and in response it was made very clear to me what is meant by the norms of the department. It means teach from the textbook.</i><p>Incidentally, some of the <i>worst</i> instructors I&#x27;ve had were these. It doesn&#x27;t inspire much conference when you see one whose teaching involves verbatim copying from the textbook onto the blackboard and making serious errors on the parts where he&#x2F;she doesn&#x27;t. The impression I get from those is basically &quot;if you can&#x27;t even figure out clearly what you&#x27;re doing, what makes you think you can teach us about it?&quot; The best tended to be ones who didn&#x27;t ever use a textbook at all.<p>Coward is such an ironic name for him, as from this article he is anything but a coward. I think he should find a better place to work where his skills are far more appreciated. That&#x27;s what I did when I encountered a similar situation in computer science.