The Association of Teacher Educators has recruited Chicago professor – and former domestic terrorist – William Ayers to speak at their the 2013 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia which will be held next month.
William Ayers, a co-founder of the radical Weather Underground domestic terror group, was a key figure during the 2008 presidential campaign due to his Chicago ties to then-Senator Obama.
The organization’s executive director, David Ritchey, confirmed that Ayers would be a keynote speaker at the conference although he admitted that he wasn’t involved in the selection process.
Ritchey added that although Ayers was a controversial figure he had been invited due to his “work in the education field, apart from all the other stuff.”
The website biography makes no specific mention of Ayers’ controversial background, describing him as the “formerly Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.”
The online biography also lists several of Ayers’ books, including Fugitive Days, which chronicles his activities as a radical domestic terrorist in the ’60s.
According to the website, the Association of Teacher Educators is a 90-year-old organization dedicated to “the improvement of teacher education for both school and campus-based teacher educators.”
The theme for the Annual Meeting this year is “Living and Learning across a Lifetime.”
