IFI Update: Naperville North Cancels Ayers

I posed the following questions to Naperville North Superintendent Alan Leis and the members of the District 203 Board of Education:

Of all the people Naperville North or teacher Kermit Eby could have invited to speak to students, Bill Ayers is the best you could come up with and the person Leis believes students from other schools would “die” to hear? While it seems unlikely that students would die to hear him, I have no doubt that many adolescents, trapped as they are in a period of immaturity and rebellion, would love to hear an adult who remains, like a much darker Peter Pan, trapped in immaturity and rebellion. But with all the remarkable professors available in the Chicagoland area, this is best you could offer students?

Click here to view Ayers and his equally radical wife defending Ward Churchill, the disgraced, discredited, goofball professor who was fired from the University of Colorado:

This is the professor who “called victims of the 9/11 terror attacks ‘little Eichmanns,’ comparing them to Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann.” The college had received “numerous complaints of academic misconduct.” Churchill “was accused of plagiarism, inventing historical incidents and ghostwriting essays which he then cited in his footnotes in support of his own views,” and he “did not express regret, apologize or agree to refrain from this behavior in the future.”

After reading a Daily Herald blog post from a parent of two of Eby’s former students, I have a clearer understanding of Mr. Eby’s reason for inviting Ayers: Ayers embodies the same troubling ideas that Eby uses his classroom and public funds to promote.

It might behoove public school teachers, administrators, and school board members, including Mr. Eby, to read some of the substantive criticism of the “social justice” theories of Bill Ayers, Maxine Greene, Paulo Freire, and their devotees.

Many educators and taxpayers mistakenly believe that the phrase “social justice” is synonymous with justice, which it decidedly is not. “Social justice” theory is a particular socio-political conceptual framework that includes a number of troubling philosophical assumptions with which many scholars disagree, including scholars “of color.” Here are links to a few short articles that discuss the problematic features of “social justice” theory.

http://www.i2i.org/main/article.php?article_id=315

http://www.psaf.org/archive/2006/June2006/PolitcalAssaultonK12SchoolsDHStatement.html

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guides/Z-Social%20Justice-Code%20for%20Communism.htm

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2702

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html

http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-05-11ss.html

http://socialfoundations.blogspot.com/2007/04/choice-versus-social-justice-professors.html

http://instructivist.blogspot.com/2007/05/social-justice-assault.html

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/2008/04/guest_blogger_sol_stern_weighs.html

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=AD7B4270-B375-4CAB-93E1-48472748E5E9

Since District 203 is so manifestly committed to exposing students to diverse views on controversial issues, thereby fostering critical thinking, it seems that administrators would want to require teachers who promote “social justice” theory through either curricular resources or classroom commentary, also to present criticism of its arguable propositions. Without spending equal time and equivalent resources on all sides of cultural debates, including the debate on the value and soundness of “social justice” theory, education becomes indoctrination.

Here is the Daily Herald blog posting on Kermit Eby which if even only partially accurate should be deeply troubling to the administration:

Both my daughter and my son sat through Kermit Eby’s (the Naperville North teacher who invited Bill Ayers to come talk to students) American history classes. My son also had him for American government. Both those classes are required by the district. I know Mr. Eby. I sat through five parent conferences with him and I had several conversations with him and exchanged three years of email notes with him. Kermit Eby is the stereotype of the so-called-progressive teacher. When I called to complain about a gay-rights skit he put on in which two girls held hands and kissed during a mandatory attendance assembly he justified himself by claiming to be a “progressive missionary working for social justice in the underbelly of affluence.” . . .

And there is no balance of any kind. My kids sat through his classes and listened to daily rants about the evils of the Republican party, conservatives, religion, America, capitalism and especially George Bush. Just like this Leis character Eby will tell you he does things like inviting Ayers in the name of diversity and letting the kids make up their own minds. Don’t buy it.

Any student who dared to counter the straight left party line was humiliated and shouted down. According to my daughter Eby’s students learn very quickly to shut up and toe the line if they want a good grade from the man.

He tells students that the textbook supplied by the district is full of lies and supplies them with copies of Howard Zinn an American hating communist historian to provide “balance.” His classroom is plastered with bumper stickers for liberal politicians and causes. According to my son another teacher put up Marine recruiting posters in the same room which Mr. Eby made a show of removing and tearing to shreds. He hangs a universal peace flag outside his class but refuses to stand during the daily pledge of allegiance. This man is about many things but balance isn’t one of them.

And believe me he is loving every second of the controversy is being stirred up. He lives for it. Like a lot of liberals the guy has a big ego and he loves to be the center of attention. He poses as some kind of brave anti-establishment crusader but he has worked his entire life for the state. He tells his students he is a socialist but draws a six figure paycheck.

He says he is a pacifist but he brings domestic terrorist Ayers into the school. He says he supports diversity but won’t tolerate or present any perspective that isn’t 100% so called progressive.

And oh yeah he has tenure so there is nothing we can do about it.

Illinois Family Institute wants to commend all those Naperville taxpayers who took the time to express their concerns about the Ayers invitation. We hope that other communities will learn that civic engagement is a critical obligation we all share and that it can effect positive change.

We also want to commend those District 203 administrators and School Board members who had the wisdom and humility to rethink the Ayers visit in response to community concerns. We hope that they and all public school educators will think more critically about how teachers use public resources and their classroom.

Finally, we want to encourage taxpayers to demand that policy be written that requires teachers to spend equal time and present equivalent resources on all sides of cultural debates–including the debate over the value and soundness of “social justice” theory.