Choose one:
To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (Teachers College Press)
A Kind and Just Parent:The Children of Juvenile Court (Beacon)
Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom (Beacon)
City Kids/ City Schools (The New Press)
Then make up your own mind, and send me a comment.
Bill Ayers 
Dear Mr. Ayers,
I realize this is off the topic, but not wishing to send personal correspondance to your workplace and seeing no alternative address, I’ll leave my remarks here:
With your name suddenly all over the place, I thought I should do a little research and find out just who the heck you are… having been raised by a genuine, honest to goodness Hippie (Her resume is impressive and I’m very proud of my radical pedigree*wink*), I was loosely familiar with the story of the SDS and the Weathermen, and while I am too young to pass any judgement, positive or negative, on the actions, I admire the motives greatly. I know of that era only through the stories told to me and the books I’ve read and I know that can only provide me with a general idea, not a full comprehension, of just how vivid and vehement the battle lines, here and abroad.
With this as my framework, I anticipated finding that you were living a quiet little life, hopefully a happy one, and that you had “mainstreamed” like so many of those who fought so hard against a system of thought, a culture, that celebrated “freedom”, so long as it was expressed and enjoyed in a manner of which the “establishment” approved… I fear I’m expressing that last thought badly, I hope you understand my meaning… I can understand giving in to the exhaustion such an uphill battle can cause and risk taking at certain levels is an avocation of youth… I do not blame those who joined the mainstream or those who settled on quiet rural hillsides, apart from the mainstream they tried to change.
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to find that you are still fighting, with different tools, but still fighting for all the ideals of that time I am too young to remember but have seen in glimpses and in the embers of hope and anger that still marks so many of the people who helped raise me.
Thank you for not sitting down.
Hey Bill — I’ve read two of the four of ’em and am and have always been your fan. Stay strong. Love, Barb
I am going to take advantage of this public, open space.
Digging deep in the back of my closet, I found my copy of ‘Teaching Toward Freedom.’ I skimmed through my notes and extracted the content I found most meaningful.
1. Freedom Schools- “sites of community education based on a process designed to open doors, open minds, open possibilities- an education that would enable people to surpass limitations…..” p. 79-83
2. Derrick Bell’s reflection on activism, p. 108
“All of life is a reprieve.” Bell goes on to argue that we must search for satisfaction in the voyage, we must find our integrity in the struggle, because no matter how hard we work for justice we will never get there- “Perfection will evade us,” he says. There is always more to do, and there always will be more to do.
3. Activism and the activists written “all over the pages of history.” P. 109
4. “The four seekers lurching toward Oz provide another lesson for us. We can all constantly work to identify obstacles to our freedom, to our fullness. The obstacles will change as we develop and grow, but there is always more to know, always more to become, more to do. In our quest we can reach out for allies and friends to give us strength and power and courage to move on. And we can not know in advance that there is no wizard at the end of the road, no higher power with a magic wand to solve our all-too-human problems. Recognizing that the people with the problems are also the people with the solutions, and that waiting for the lawmakers, the system, or the union- or any other fraudulent great power hidden behind a heavy curtain- to save us or to get it right before we get it right is to wait a lifetime. We can look inside ourselves, summon strengths we never knew we had, connect up with other teachers and parents and kids to create the schools and classrooms we deserve- thoughtful places of decency, sites of peace and freedom, and justice. We are on the way, then, to our real emerald cities.” p. 143
Important practices for teachers, critical thinkers, and compassionate human beings are Self-Reflection, Activism, and Progressiveness… Our professor practices what he teachers.
My peers, let me hear your thoughts. Take advantage of this public space.
-AK-
Bill,
You’ve done great work for children and educators – kudos to you and thank you! I’m really sorry that your name is being trashed right now and I’m sure it’s hard for you. Thank you for the work you’ve done and the passion you’ve done it with – you can’t change the world without passion and enthusiasm. By my measurements, you’ve already made our world a better place!
Andrea
Bill – We met at the Rethinking Schools gatherings on small schools. I’ve since opened the little charter school we talked about and hopefully we are enacting lots of the practices we talked about which would support grreater equity and justice in public education. I lost all my email addresses when I switched my job to come here so I’m posting this on your website. I have been moved by your writings and by your generosity and compassionate humanity. While I think there are times you are probably just shaking your head in wonder at how nuts this country can get, the national frenzy must get to you and your family. Please know that lots of us are thinking about you and we know the truth. Hang in there and thanks for inspiring so many to believe in the possibilities and promises of education. I guess in the end it makes sense that the dangerous anti-intellectual folks that want “democracy” to run by dumbing down everything and failing to educate our children would be going where they are going. I’m just sorry that you have to be put in the middle of it.
With respect and gratitude, Debbie Wei
I have just been reading some of your inspiring writings, Bill Ayers. Here’s wishing more power to your pen!
I shall write again, when I have studied your work more thoroughly.
Warm regards
GS Chandy
Bangalore, India
Hello,
For the past couple of years, as I was earning an MA in Multicultural Education, I have been discovering that I often could depend on an article by Bill Ayers to be both interesting and insightful. Thank you. I think you have often brought a clear and comprehensive understanding to some very important discussions in our common field of education.
More recently, I also have been regretfully discovering that the John McCain campaign seems fully willing to do anything it deems expedient, to attempt to score a point of some sort on Barack Obama–no matter how it distorts the truth, no matter whom it hurts, and no matter what ugly responses it stirs up. Aside from making me ever more certain that I do NOT want anyone who would condone such behavior running my country, it has made me feel very disgusted and sad.
I also have often wondered how you are holding up under this relentless barrage of character-assassination. It cannot be easy or pleasant. I doubt it will make much difference for you to know that I have been concerned for you, but anyway I hope you will weather this storm and soon be able to continue to push for equity and social justice in our schools–and also in our national discourse.
Best wishes,
Jan S. Gephardt
I very much hope that when this all winds down you will write a memoir about the past year. I, for one, am very curious what your thoughts are on it all. Plus it would seem to speak to some pretty important questions about history/activism and what it means to change tactics but keep up the same fight.
I have purchased a used (but unread, new condition) copy of your book “Teaching Toward Freedom…” through Amazon.com for $4.05. I will review it and post my comments.
Bill, I am a teacher here in Northern Californa, working for an Independent Study charter, with its main focus in vocational trainiing…I am the enrollment specialist.
I went to two meetings today. The first one was about gang prevention…the second was one for the BTSA trainig where I am a mentor. A quote from one of your works was on the first page of my handbook—so I had to see if you are THAT Bill Ayers–and so I see that you are, and I would be proud to know you, serve on any committee with you, and think this country could use a few more people like you.
Sue