Ward Churchill, Bill Ayers, and "Social Justice" Education

I've got a couple of related education items to share with readers.

First, El Marco has e-mailed his latest photo-journalism essay, "Ward Churchill Trial in Denver - Education is the Motor Force of Revolution." I know this is hardly new, but I'm still blown away at these neo-Stalinist idiots parading around at protests - and now the Churchill trial - with the most hare-brained anti-capitalilst paraphernalia imaginable.

Be sure to check out the cool blog keeping track of the trial, Race to the Botttom: Ward Churchill - First Amendment Suit.

Our second item is the new essay at Pajamas by Mary Grabar, "Teachers: They’re All Bill Ayers Now."

Ms. Grabar discussses the popularity across the academy of "social justice education," and notes how at many of his campus lectures, Bill Ayers is billed as “leader in the educational reform movements for over forty years.” Ayers is scheduled to give a talk at Pennsylvania’s Millersville University on March 19, and the local write-up of the campus backlash against the visit describes Ayers as "a university professor and a member of Chicago's intellectual establishment."

And how's that working out for the education of our future teachers? Citing Ayers' latest book, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, Ms. Graber describes the work as "a pastiche of self-promoting observations on the classroom, the need to inform children about “social justice,” like-minded radicals, and complaints about conservatives."

The leftist intelligentsia no doubt eats it up. Adds Grabar:

... it seems that education colleges are churning out teachers more concerned with being “agents of social change” than the three “R”s. Little wonder, then, that Ayers’ book is being reissued as a graphic novel. Little wonder that student groups sponsored Ayers’ visit on March 5 to the University of Colorado to speak in defense of ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, who was fired for plagiarism and not for calling 9/11 victims “little Eichmanns.” We can thank their teachers for planting in their heads notions about “social change” that would lead to their ignorantly calling the event “Forbidden Education and the Rise of NeoMcCarthyism.”

You got that right, and click here for a look at more on the "social justice curriculum.