I Am An English Teacher
If the Unibomber had only had a good English teacher, everything might have been different.
As you might remember, this guy sent bombs into universities injuring and killing people. Many years later, his brother found out about him and, after agonizing over it, turned him into the FBI; they then found him hiding out in a homemade cabin in Montana, arrested and convicted him.
His supposed reason for doing what he did was that he was upset that he couldn't get academia, or anyone else, to publish or even read his lengthy treatise on computers and their effect on society. At one point, he agreed to stop if a major newspaper would publish his paper intact and unedited. I believe the New York Times agreed to do this and published it alongside an article about him and his violent acts. If I remember right, he went right on being a bomber; maybe he didn't like the New York Times article about him.
I do remember that I [i]did[/i] read his treatise in full, as well as the Times article about him and his destructive ways.
Immediately, one thing struck me as soon as I began to read his paper--this guy was a stunningly boring writer! He wrote his paper in unnecessarily complex and amazingly long sentences. His thesis, all about the future of computers, was almost impossible to decipher, if indeed the reader didn't fall asleep first. Academic writing is some of the most boring writing to read anyway, but the Unibomber's screed was plodding and purposely obtuse. I struggled and got through it, sweated it out and eventually comprehended what he had to say, but I am quite sure not many did.
If only he had been in my English composition class! Perhaps with some coaching and a little practice, he might have worded his thoughts so that they would've been published in the first place.
He wrote about the down side of putting the PC into our society and making it part of our daily lives. He was quite intelligent and prescient about what was to come; social media making communication both easier yet in some ways less authentic, less immediately personal. He foresaw many types of cybercrimes and showed a responsible citizen's concern over how it could be a used in terms of voting and politics.
The guy no doubt needed a good psychiatrist early on in the game. By the time he had his intelligent but boring paper rejected a few times, he had completely lost his sense of humor. This is an unhealthy situation for any of us, but for him, and his victims, it turned tragic.
This dude really, really needed a good English composition teacher. I am sorry he was not in my class long before he went bad. I taught a lot of my classes at the state forensics mental hospital, so my class would've been perfect for him.
The value of a good English teacher--and early intervention in cases of mental illness--should never be underestimated.
As you might remember, this guy sent bombs into universities injuring and killing people. Many years later, his brother found out about him and, after agonizing over it, turned him into the FBI; they then found him hiding out in a homemade cabin in Montana, arrested and convicted him.
His supposed reason for doing what he did was that he was upset that he couldn't get academia, or anyone else, to publish or even read his lengthy treatise on computers and their effect on society. At one point, he agreed to stop if a major newspaper would publish his paper intact and unedited. I believe the New York Times agreed to do this and published it alongside an article about him and his violent acts. If I remember right, he went right on being a bomber; maybe he didn't like the New York Times article about him.
I do remember that I [i]did[/i] read his treatise in full, as well as the Times article about him and his destructive ways.
Immediately, one thing struck me as soon as I began to read his paper--this guy was a stunningly boring writer! He wrote his paper in unnecessarily complex and amazingly long sentences. His thesis, all about the future of computers, was almost impossible to decipher, if indeed the reader didn't fall asleep first. Academic writing is some of the most boring writing to read anyway, but the Unibomber's screed was plodding and purposely obtuse. I struggled and got through it, sweated it out and eventually comprehended what he had to say, but I am quite sure not many did.
If only he had been in my English composition class! Perhaps with some coaching and a little practice, he might have worded his thoughts so that they would've been published in the first place.
He wrote about the down side of putting the PC into our society and making it part of our daily lives. He was quite intelligent and prescient about what was to come; social media making communication both easier yet in some ways less authentic, less immediately personal. He foresaw many types of cybercrimes and showed a responsible citizen's concern over how it could be a used in terms of voting and politics.
The guy no doubt needed a good psychiatrist early on in the game. By the time he had his intelligent but boring paper rejected a few times, he had completely lost his sense of humor. This is an unhealthy situation for any of us, but for him, and his victims, it turned tragic.
This dude really, really needed a good English composition teacher. I am sorry he was not in my class long before he went bad. I taught a lot of my classes at the state forensics mental hospital, so my class would've been perfect for him.
The value of a good English teacher--and early intervention in cases of mental illness--should never be underestimated.