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For the former association football player and manager, see Billy Ayre.

William C. ("Bill") Ayers (born 1944) is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has worked on school reform in Chicago. He was a 1960s-era radical and former member of the Weather Underground.

Ayres was born to a wealthy Illinois family, received a private school education, and attended the University of Michigan, where he was active in the leadership of the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society. He was among the eleven signers of the 1969 mission statement forming the group eventually known as the Weather Underground Organization, and was a fugitive throughout the 1970s after participating in a bombing campaign against police stations and U.S. Government buildings in protest of American foreign and domestic policies. In 1980 he and his partner, Bernardine Dohrn, surrendered to authorities, and due to prosecutorial misconduct conspiracy charges against him were dropped.

Ayres went on to acquire several degrees in Education and joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education. He has edited and written many books and articles on education theory, policy and practice, and has appeared on many panels and symposia, and has also been active in local community and philanthropic activities.

Early life

Ayers is the son of Thomas G. Ayers, former Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison, Chicago philanthropist and for whom Thomas G. Ayers College of Commerce and Industry was named. He grew up in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, and attended Lake Forest Academy.

Radical history

According to his memoir, Ayers became radicalized at the University of Michigan where he became involved in the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization). Ayers joined the Weatherman group in 1969, but went underground with several associates after the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970, in which three members (Ted Gold, Terry Robbins, and Diana Oughton, who was Ayers's girlfriend at the time) were killed while constructing a bomb. While underground, he and fellow member Bernardine Dohrn married and had two children, Zayd and Malik. They were purged from the group in the mid-1970s, and turned themselves in to the authorities in 1981. All charges against him were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct during the long search for the fugitives. They later became legal guardians of Chesa Boudin, the son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, after his parents were arrested for their part in the Brinks Robbery of 1981.

In 2001, Ayers published Fugitive Days: A Memoir. Ayers's interview with the New York Times about his book was published, by historical coincidence, on September 11, 2001, and opens with his statement, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." When asked he would "do it all again", Ayers replied "I don't want to discount the possibility." Ayers later explained that by "no regrets" he meant that he didn't regret his efforts to oppose the Vietnam War, and that "we didn't do enough" meant that efforts to stop the war were obviously inadequate as it dragged on for a decade; the two statements were not intended to elide into a wish they had set more bombs. The interview also includes his reaction (in his book) to Emile De Antonio's 1976 documentary film about the Weathermen: "He was 'embarrassed by the arrogance, the solipsism, the absolute certainty that we and we alone knew the way. The rigidity and the narcissism."

New Politics reviewer Jesse Lemisch has contrasted Ayers's recollections with those of other Weathermen and has alleged serious factual errors. Ayers also declines to discuss various episodes, such as the attempted Detroit bombings in February 1970. According to a government informant inside the organization, after doing his assigned job in reconnaissance the informant disagreed with Ayers over the placement of one bomb, which could easily kill black patrons who favored an adjacent restaurant, but Ayers dismissed such sentimentality as unrevolutionary. Ayers, in the foreward to his book, states that it was written as his personal memories and impressions over time, not a scholarly research project. His history occasionally surfaces, as when he was asked not to attend a progressive educators' conference in the fall of 2006 on the basis that the organizers did not want to risk an association with his past.

Academic career

Ayers is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education. His interests include teaching for social justice, urban educational reform, narrative and interpretive research, children in trouble with the law, and related issues.

He has edited and written many books and articles on education theory, policy and practice, and has appeared on many panels and symposia. He was tapped by Mayor Richard M. Daley to shape Chicago's now nationally-renowned school reform program.

His degrees include a B.A. from the University of Michigan in American Studies (1968), an M.Ed from Bank Street College in Early Childhood Education, an M.Ed from Teachers College, Columbia University in Early Childhood Education (1987) and an Ed.D from Columbia University in Curriculum and Instruction (1987).

Ayers has also served on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a anti-poverty philanthropic foundation, since 1999.

Personal life

He is married to Bernadine Dohrn with whom he had two children and shared legal guardianship of a third child. They currently live in Chicago.

See also

• Weatherman (organization)
• The Weather Underground, 2002 documentary film featuring Ayers
• 2008 United States presidential election controversies and attacks#Bill Ayers

Works

• Education: An American Problem. Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU
• 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
• Good Preschool Teachers, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729472
• The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729465
• To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0807732625
• To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0807734551
• City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), New Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1565843288
• A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0807044025
• 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 978-0807737217
• Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978-1565844209
• Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator's International Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1891928031
• Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1929059027
• A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0807739631
• Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), New Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1565846661
• 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 978-0807741573
• 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 978-0807742044
• On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0807744000
• Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0807071242 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978-0142002551)
• Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0807744611
• Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978-080703269-5
• Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqus of the Weather Underground 1970-1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1583227268
• Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978-0805859270
• 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 978-1595583383

References

1. Ron Jacobs, The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, (New York: Verso, 1997), 184.
2. Rohter, Larry and Luo, Michael (April 17, 2008). "'60s Radicals Become Issue in Campaign of 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Obituary: Thomas Ayers Served as Board Chair from 1975 to 1986Northwestern University, June 19, 2007
4. Thomas G Ayers, 1915-2007 Cinnamon Swirl, June 18, 2007
5. ^ Dinitia Smith, "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen, The New York Times, September 11, 2001
6. The interview was completed prior to 9/11 and should not be characterized as a reaction to the events of that day
7. Bill Ayers, Episodic Notoriety–Fact and Fantasy, Bill Ayers (blog), April 6, 2008
8. Jesse Lemisch, Weather Underground Rises from the Ashes: They're Baack!, New Politics, Summer 2006
9. Christopher C. Harmon, "Fire, Seen Through Frosted Glass", January 14, 2004.
10. Interview with Bill Ayers: On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times, Revolution, October 1, 2006
11. ^ William Ayers University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education]
12. Mike Dorning and Rick Pearson, Daley: Don't tar Obama for Ayers, The Chicago Tribune, April 17, 2008
13. Michael Dobbs, Obama's 'Weatherman' Connection, The Fact Checker, washingtonpost.com, February 19, 2008
14. http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/902213,CST-NWS-ayers18.article

External links

• Bill Ayers—official website
  • blog, CV

• Living people
• 1944 births
• University of Illinois at Chicago faculty
• Youth empowerment individuals
• American activists
• Members of Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
• Weather Underground
• COINTELPRO targets
• Lake Forest Academy alumni
• People from Glen Ellyn, Illinois