THE ISSUE   The school hosted a conservative talk-show host last week as a response to a talk given by Bill Ayers earlier.

OUR VIEW   Students should remain open to diverse viewpoints, but adult organizers may be pushing the agendas here — to the detriment of education.

Are there any people left who believe their political ideology hasn’t been properly represented by a notable speaker on the campus of Riverside Brookfield High School?

Conservative talk-show host Mike Gallagher presented a speech at RBHS last week. The event was organized in response to a talk given earlier this year by Bill Ayers, who helped form a domestic terrorist group in the late 1960s called the Weather Underground.

Jan Goldberg, a government and current-events teacher at RBHS, said some of her students last year were curious about why Ayers’ association with President Obama was so controversial. They asked her if she could arrange to have Ayers speak at the school, and she decided to wait until the election was over.

Word of the Ayers appearance raised more than a few eyebrows. Some parents and community members thought the political scales needed to be leveled. So, they arranged to have Gallagher make a presentation, which was titled “Activism that Can Change the World.”

There is something to be said for ideological balance when it comes to presenting political views. Hearing diverse opinions helps people make more informed decisions.

But Goldberg’s students had requested that Ayers be invited to campus because his name was in the news during the election. Young people don’t necessarily need to be force-fed a version of balance devised by angry community members. Let’s give them some credit for being smart enough to research opposing viewpoints to satisfy their curiosity.

Some critics of Ayers’ appearance at RBHS said it was inappropriate for him to come to the school because he is an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Given his activities in the ’60s and ’70s, he wouldn’t necessarily be at the top of our list of preferred speakers.

But as reported in several publications, Ayers has disavowed the use of violence and said his group was wrong to do so. He’s also expressed regret for the injuries caused by the Weather Underground’s bombings, so he seems to have undergone at least a marginal change of heart on the use of violence in protesting government policies.

We hope RBHS students gained from these discussions and were provoked to think deeper about events in our nation’s history. It would be a shame if these presentations at the local high school merely served the political agenda of adults rather than the education of students.