A 50-year-old man was upset that the sign in front of the Oregon Teacher
Standards and Practices Commission read "Oregon Teacher Standards an
Practices Commission" (the D had fallen off the sign or been worn away),
so he resolved to explode it with a pressure-cooker bomb. But the bomb
didn't work, an outcome the man blamed on the spelling errors and typos
in the bomb-making instructions he'd downloaded from the Internet. So he
took his bomb into the Oregon Teacher Standards an Practices Commission
and gave them a piece of his mind, vis-a-vis bombs, standards, and
education. And practices.
"He walked quite confidently into our office as though he had a
mission," she said, "and I think that was what alarmed me right off the
bat." (Because no one who wants to be a teacher comes in with a good
attitude? My guess is that the pressure cooker with wires sticking out
of it might have also played a role in her alarm.) The man explained
that he was upset with their misspelled sign and had just tried to blow
it up for that reason. Didn't work, and you know what else?
After discussing his failed attempt to detonate his bomb, the man
complained that the instructions he downloaded to make the bomb also had
misspellings. [According to the director, he] implied that [she] and
her employees should be concerned about the level of education children
receive, given that his [bomb-making] instructions were rife with
errors.
I think that only follows, though, if these were official State of
Oregon bomb-making instructions that he'd gotten hold of. Then it would
be fair to worry that our children are not getting the kind of training
in literacy and improvised explosive devices that they will need to be
successful in today's competitive economy. But if these were just any
old bomb-making instructions, then the state's not to blame. You always
have to be careful with what you find on the internet.
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