Revolutionary Education:The Chicago Annenberg Challenge

The CAC’s agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers’s educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism. In the mid-1960s, Mr. Ayers taught at a radical alternative school, and served as a community organizer in Cleveland’s ghetto. In works like “City Kids, City Teachers” and “Teaching the Personal and the Political,” Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? “I’m a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,” Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk’s, “Sixties Radicals,” at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.

How did the CAC help Ayers, who headed the operating arm of the CAC, translate his revolutionary plan into action? CAC required every participating school to partner with external partners who would best advance its leftist agenda:

Clarice Feldman postulates that Obama and Ayers may have met in 1988. I believe it was EARLIER than that.

Here’s why..

Are you aware that while Obama was completing his degree at Columbia in 1982-83, Bill Ayers was attending Bank Street College from which he graduated with a Masters in Early Childhood Education in 1984?

Bank Street College is less than a quarter of a mile from Columbia, and they collaborate on courses.

We know, from his own writings, that Obama “was drawn to foreign students, Marxist professors, and punk poets”. One such professor was Edward Said, who was also an associate of Bill Ayers.

It is inconceivable, given their concentric politics, and Ayers’ penchant for recruiting black radicals, that they did not meet in the two years they were studying within a quarter mile of each other.

They both allegedly were friends of Columbia professor, Edward Said.

Is this why Obama won’t release his transcript from Columbia? Does it reveal a tie to Ayers? Were they classmates? Did they perhaps even live together or close to each other?

Bank Street has no student housing so Ayers could not live on campus, Columbia encourages on campus living but no one can remember Obama ever being there, so most likely also lived off campus.

If this theory is correct then an awful lot of other dots fall into place.

Where did Obama go on graduation? Not home to Hawaii - he went to ........Chicago!

Where did he meet his wife? At a job with a law firm where Bernadine Dorhn worked and Bill Ayers’ father had influence.

How did he insert himself into the Chicago political structure so easily? As Stanley Kurtz asks in his recent article, “who sent him”?

As Kurtz surmises correctly - it was Ayers, but I believe he did it much earlier than Kurtz and Feldman think.

All this requires more investigation. I realize I have floated some theories here that I cannot prove, but they do make logical sense.

The real question for Obama regarding all this is “why should we even need to speculate”?

What is he hiding?

Why won’t he answer the questions?

I think the answer is that he has been Ayers’ protege for 25 years.

Where did Obama go on graduation? Not home to Hawaii - he went to ........Chicago!

Obama didn't go to Chicago until two years after he graduated Columbia. He worked at a financial reporting company (BIC) in New York and then NYPIRG before going to Chicago.

I picked up on the Bank Street and Columbia proximity too. However, there is another possible New York connection. Cooper Union.

Discussing his time studying political science at New York's Columbia University, in the early 80s, Obama reveals that he"went to socialist conferences at Cooper Union and African cultural fairs in Brooklyne.”
"Cooper Union" is the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a privately funded college in Downtown Manhattan.
For many years, from the early '80s until 2004, Cooper Union was the usual venue of the annual Socialist Scholars Conference-almost certainly what Obama was referring to.
source

Would Ayers pass up the annual Socialist Scholars Conference?

I agree, the 88 date is fact, but it also raises the questions that are discussed in the article.

The theory that I am putting forward, which I believe is highly plausible, would go a long way to answering those questions.

Another factor that I had not considered is that Ayers likely had celebrity status among the New York radical student community. Here was a radical leader who had done wild things in the name of the cause and had beaten the rap. He most likely was was well known in their community and Obama, who “sought out Marxist professors” (his own words) would have been drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? “I’m a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,” Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk’s, “Sixties Radicals,” at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.

Dear Al Gore,
I love this Internet thingy of yours. It's amazing what one can find.

browse our faculty
"William Ayers, Professor"

Bill Ayers's interests include teaching for social justice, urban educational reform, narrative and interpretive research, children in trouble with the law, and related issues. See www.billayers.org.
'Learn More'
EDUCATION:

1968 - B.A., University of Michigan, American Studies

1984 - M.Ed, Bank Street College, Early Childhood Education

1987 - M.Ed, Teachers College, Columbia University, Early Childhood Education

1987 - Ed.D, Columbia University, Curriculum & Instruction
And here is some of the crap they 'teach' students who want a B.A. in Elementary Education....
The B.A. in Elementary Education provides coursework leading to Type 03 elementary education certification (State of Illinois) and prepares students to teach in urban settings. In addition to courses in literacy, science, math, and social studies, students will take courses in multiculturalism, bilingualism and in instruction for exceptional learners. Through these academic courses and supported classroom experiences in K-9 urban schools, teacher candidates will develop the foundations and tools to guide children as they develop their identities as learners and expand their potential for academic growth.

Note that they only offer a B.A.Ed degree and not a B.S.Ed.

To me that's a HUGH distinction as our youngest daughter just graduated last May from ISU (IL State Univ) with a B.S.Ed, she has her Teaching Certificate (a lot of State tests to pass) and is now 'learning the ropes' as a Teacher's Aide (step one). And at ISU, where 80% of the Teachers in IL happen to graduate from, they do not have the touchy feely commie courses on "multiculturalism" and "bilingualism", OR junk that "prepares students to teach in urban settings".

And I have a feeling those P.C. commie courses at the U of I Chicago are the doing of small 'c' communist, Professor Bill Ayers.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.