Nothing like a little blog-on-blog violence to liven things up. Over at Flypaper the other day, Mike Petrilli advised the Association Council of the American Educational Research Association to dump Bill Ayers, who was elected as AERA’s Vice President-Elect of Curriculum Studies in March.
“The Council might consider whether it’s prudent to allow a former terrorist to join its ranks—particularly a man who said as late as 2001 that ‘I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough,’ wrote Petrilli, who noted the Council has the authority to strip anyone’s association membership, and suggested AERA do so to Ayers.
Eduwonkette, while not defending Ayers per se, isn’t exactly throwing him under a bus. “Bill Ayers was democratically elected, and the right of professional associations to self-govern should be respected,” she writes. “Mike believes that Ayers’ presence reflects badly on the whole association, but guilt by association is a shaky principle.”
I’d gladly take a bullet for the talented Ms. Kette, but I’m with Petrilli on this one. It’s not a question of guilt by association but poor judgment. A vote for Ayers may not be a vote for terrorism, but apparently it’s not a disqualifying factor, which reflects badly on the profession, to say the least. A commenter in Eduwonkette’s thread offers that Ayers was never convicted of terrorism, which is true. But having pronounced himself “guilty as hell and free as a bird,” the issue of his guilt or innocence is not in dispute. Ayers, having acted in his Weathermen days as judge, jury and (at the very least attempted) executioner also makes his legal standing a curious standard by which to judge him.
The mildest thing one can say is that the AERA, in overlooking the unrepentant Mr. Ayers past, is not exactly crowning itself in glory. Like Petrilli, I’m not an AERA member either. But I am an educator, and have a hard time rationalizing my profession’s warm association with Mr. Ayers.
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