In their book One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy, David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin listed about 150 leftist courses offered at 12 universities. These courses mask their political intent with scholarly language, but some of them neglect even basic academic principles, making them resemble closely the political courses that are mandatory in communist countries.
The University of California–Santa Cruz offers a seminar course called The Theory and Practice of Resistance and Social Movements. The course description is as follows: “The goal of this seminar is to learn how to organize a revolution. We will learn what communities past and present have done and are doing to resist, challenge, and overcome systems of power including (but not limited to) global capitalism, state oppression, and racism.”
Bill Ayers, with the title of Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a 1960s-era radical and the leader of the Weather Underground, originally called Weatherman, which was a faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In 1969, the Weatherman went underground and became the first domestic terrorist organization in the United States. It dedicated its efforts to organizing radical students, who took part in terrorist activities designed to inflame racial conflict.
The Weatherman group perpetrated bombings against the Capitol, the New York City Police Headquarters, the Pentagon, and offices of the National Guard. As a well-known quote from Ayers goes: “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents.” Ayers’s academic publications are consistent with his resumé. In his writings he argues that we must overcome our “prejudices” concerning violent juvenile offenders.
A web of left-wing progressives successfully prevented the FBI from arresting Ayers. He re-emerged in 1980 and circumvented the law to avoid criminal justice. He became a faculty member at the University of Illinois–Chicago, where he studies early childhood education. His political views were unchanged, and he has shown no remorse for his terrorist attacks. Ayers successively became associate professor, professor, and eventually reached his current standing of Distinguished Professor. He also received the title of Senior University Scholar, the institution’s highest honor.
Each title Ayer received was the result of a joint decision on the part of his colleagues in the department. This itself reflects the university’s tacit acknowledgment and support for his terrorist past.
From Chapter Twelve: Sabotaging Education
