Cancel culture strikes like lightning, swift and unforgiving, casting those who transgress its ever-evolving mores into oblivion. Yet when it comes to education, there is an odd paradox: Some offenses seem not just forgivable but invisible, while others are career killers. It can be puzzling to understand what it truly takes to get canceled in the world of education, especially when considering the long list of unsavory characters who have flourished in spite of, or more pertinently because of, their radical pasts.

Bill Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a radical group responsible for bombings, riots, and acts of domestic terrorism during the 1960s and 1970s. Ayers is unapologetic about his past. In a 2001 New York Times interview, published ironically on Sept. 11, Ayers famously declared, “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Yet, Ayers was permitted to reinvent himself as a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois Chicago. He authored books, gave lectures, trained teachers, and became a respected figure in progressive education circles.