During the
2008 U.S. presidential campaign, a controversy arose regarding Ayers' contacts with then-candidate
Barack Obama, a matter that had been public knowledge in Chicago for years.
[62] After being raised by the American and British press
[62][63][64] the connection was picked up by conservative blogs and newspapers in the United States. The matter was raised in a campaign debate by moderator
George Stephanopoulos, and later became an issue for the
John McCain presidential campaign. Investigations by
The New York Times,
CNN, and other news organizations concluded that Obama does not have a close relationship with Ayers.
[65][66][67]
In an op-ed piece after the election, Ayers denied any close association with Obama, and castigated the Republican campaign for its use of
guilt by association tactics.
[41]
Praise and criticism of Ayers[edit]
Praise for Ayers and his work[edit]
In 1997 Chicago awarded him its Citizen of the Year award for his work on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge project.
[49]
William C. Ibershof, formerly the lead federal prosecutor in the
Weather Underground case, wrote in 2008: "Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen."
[68]
Ayers was elected Vice President for Curriculum Studies by the
American Educational Research Association in 2008.
[69] William H. Schubert, a fellow professor at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote that his election was "a testimony of [Ayers'] stature and [the] high esteem he holds in the field of education locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally."
[70]
Wall Street Journal columnist
Thomas Frank praised Ayers as a "model citizen" and a scholar whose "work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints."
[71] Studs Terkel called Ayers' memoir "a deeply moving elegy to all those young dreamers who tried to live decently in an indecent world."
[72]
In an October 2010
Chicago Sun Times editorial
Attacks on Ayers distort our history, former students of Ayers and
UIC Alumni, Daniel Schneider and Adam Kuranishi, responded in opposition to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees' decision to deny Ayers Emeritus status. They write, "We juxtaposed the image of him painted by the media with the teacher we saw in class; and the two could not be more distinct. The Ayers in the media was frozen in time; he never left the 1960s, never aged out of his 20s, and never grew in perspective. As his students, we see through this representation ... Ayers is still committed to movements for peace and justice. His worldview and tactics are evolved and elaborate, thoughtful and wise, making him unrecognizable to the media's caricature. Should we not expect someone to evolve after 40 years? One may disagree with his activism, but it is impossible to ignore his hard work and contributions to urban education, juvenile justice reform, the University of Illinois and Chicago."
[73]
Criticism of Ayers and his work[edit]
Radical bomber
[74] Jane Alpert criticized Ayers in 1974 "for his callous treatment and abandonment of
Diana Oughton before her death, and for his generally fickle and high-handed treatment of women."
[75]
Reviewing Ayers' memoir in
Slate Magazine,
Timothy Noah said he couldn't recall reading "a memoir quite so self-indulgent and morally clueless as
Fugitive Days."
[76] Sol Stern, a conservative opponent of liberal education policies, is a longtime critic of Ayers; he has "studied Mr. Ayers's work for years and read most of his books."
[77] Stern has written critiques of Ayers's career as an education reformer for
City Journal and elsewhere.
[78][79] His criticism in summary: "Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer.".
[80] "The media mainstreaming of a figure like Mr. Ayers could have terrible consequences for the country's politics and public schools."
[77]
Feminist critic
Katha Pollitt sharply criticized Ayers' December 2008
New York Times opinion piece
[81] as a "sentimentalized, self-justifying whitewash of his role in the weirdo violent fringe of the 1960s-70s antiwar left." She castigates Ayers and his Weathermen cohorts for making "the antiwar movement look like the enemy of ordinary people" during the
Vietnam War era.
[82]
Personal life[edit]
Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers in
Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, 2012
Ayers is married to
Bernardine Dohrn, a fellow former leader of the Weather Underground. They have two adult children (including Zayd, who was featured in the book
A Hope in the Unseen as the college friend of the main character Cedric Jennings) and shared legal guardianship of
Chesa Boudin, son of
Kathy Boudin and
David Gilbert. Boudin and Gilbert were former Weather Underground members who later joined the
May 19 Communist Organization and were convicted of
felony murder for their roles in that group's
Brinks robbery. Chesa Boudin went on to win a
Rhodes scholarship.
[83] Ayers and Dohrn currently live in the
Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.
[84]
Works[edit]
- Education: An American Problem. Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU OCLC 33088998
- Hot town: Summer in the City: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more, Bill Ayers, Students for a Democratic Society, 1969, ASIN B0007I3CMI
- Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Billy Ayers, Celia Sojourn, Communications Co., 1974, ASIN B000GF2KVQ OCLC 1177495
- The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-8077-2946-5
- To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-8077-3262-5*
- To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8077-3455-1
- City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), New Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1-56584-328-8
- A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-8070-4402-5
- A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation, Maxine Greene (Editor), William Ayers (Editor), Janet L. Miller (Editor), Teachers College Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8077-3721-7
- Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978-1-56584-420-9
- Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator's International Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1-891928-03-1
- Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1-929059-02-7
- A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8077-3963-1
- Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), New Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-56584-666-1
- A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools, Tom Roderick (Author), William Ayers (Author), Teachers College Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8077-4157-3
- Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown (Author), William Ayers (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), Teachers College Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8077-4204-4
- On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8077-4400-0
- Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8070-7124-2 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978-0-14-200255-1)
- Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8077-4461-1
- Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8070-3269-5
- Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-58322-726-8.
- Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978-0-8058-5927-0
- City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row, Ruby Dee (Foreword), Jeff Chang (Afterword), William Ayers (Editor), Billings, Gloria Ladson (Editor), Gregory Michie (Editor), Pedro Noguera (Editor), New Press, August 2008, ISBN 978-1-59558-338-3
- To Teach: the journey, in comics, William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner, Jonathan Kozol(Foreword), Teachers College Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8077-5062-9
- Public Enemy. Confessions of an American Dissident, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2013, ISBN978-0-8070-3276-3
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Interviews
- Video interview with Brandon Kosters of F Newsmagazine 19 February 2009
- Interview with Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, PBS NewsHour (PBS), 1996, transcript
- Which Way The Wind Blows: Bill Ayers On Obama, Terry Gross, Fresh Air (NPR), November 18, 2008
- Bill Ayers: Radical Education Theory Gets Graphic, John Seven, Publishers Weekly, April 5, 2010
- Interview with Bill Ayers, Eddie Arruza, Chicago Tonight (WTTW), June 22, 2010 (video, 13:54)
- Thorne Dreyer's June 8, 2010, Rag Radio interview with Bill Ayers (58:47)
- Thorne Dreyer's February 4, 2011, Rag Radio interview with Bill Ayers and Rick Ayers (55:48)
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