Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Ron Neely | Fayetteville, WV
We can't improve until we admit imperfection!
Glenda Campbell | Sorrento, FL
I am a retired elementary and LD teacher. I will never lie about the truth of our country’s past history! A YOUNG PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, by HOWARD ZINN, is a book every child should read!
Mink Chung | New York, NY
Catherine OBRYON | Kensington, MD
Humans have the right to learn. Trust is developed. Truthful information is the basis of education. Reason and respect are taught.
Jennifer Abastillas | London, GB
Education is the key to social change. Holistically involving all voices and perspectives is the verity of our 21st century existence. We must protect our freedom to form beliefs and opinions based on evidence-based research. No student ever forgets the moment they become a critical thinker. Our job as educators is to provide those moments of awakening everyday.
Mary Schimmelbusch | Renton, WA
Students have the right to know the truth about past and present America.
Jacquelyn Urbani | San Francisco, CA
Marta Repollet | Portland, OR
Katrina Halsey | Milwaukee, WI
Teaching for truth and transparency will combat fear and hate. It is our job as educators to give our students the tools that they will need as they enter the adult world and make the difference is that we need. My family comes from Kansas City, Missouri and therefore my routes are in Missouri change needs to begin now.
Jen Collier | Walnut Creek, CA
The truth is the truth and that’s what we should be teaching.
Tracy Ahmadian | Smithfield, RI
I am signing because I want our children to understand the American history of white supremacy, so we can all break this cycle of oppression. All Americans are affected by these systems of oppression. I as a white person have had to educate myself to see my own internal biases that have contributed to upholding white supremacy. Let us learn the truth so we can all heal.
Jess Nickelsen | Buffalo, MN
We can’t learn from our history if we don’t acknowledge ALL of it.
Darcy Bluhm , MI
We have a duty to teach the truth about our country's history - one which gives voice to all those who make up our population and accurately depicts all of its flaws and strengths. We are to teach students to think critically and let them know this country is a work in progress. We are still aspiring to our ideals and still have a long way to go. We can't get there if we are not being honest about how we've created our current conditions and fully grapple with it.
Edwin Ellis | Stone Mountain, GA
I cannot stand by and watch the state of GA strip his teachers of the right to teach truth in their classrooms each day. The only way to prevent history from repeating itself is to teach it as it occurred!
Erica Trebelhorn | Northfield, MN
Children deserve to understand history from all sides, to learn to ask questions, and to make conclusions that have meaning and substance.
Abby Whetzel | Amarillo, TX
Book banning is harming our kids education! We need are violating the first amendment by taking away books! Valuable books, might I add, that are crucial to help shape identities and beliefs.
Kimber Burrows , WA
Rome Puente | Albuquerque, NM
It’s important for everyone to have access to all books!
Kylie Budddin | Iowa City, IA
none of us are free until we are all free.
Katherine Combs | Edmonds, WA
Heather Wyatt-Nichol | Baltimore, MD
Truth matters
Ben Dietz | Providence
I became a teacher to empower young people in my community. Truly empowering students is only possible through compassionate engagement with truths about our history, our environment, and the voices of our community.
Kristen Peck
I became a teacher to help empower young people to create a better world, which can only happen through understanding the TRUE complexities of our past and present world.
Gwendolyn Russell Green | Lithonia, GA
Honest education is critical. Hiding and or sanitizing American History is dishonest and harmful to the goal of creating a well educated populace.
C WHITE | Snellville, GA
STEAM Education for Global Competency can only be achieved if everyone is at the 'table'.If it is not working for everyone, than it is not working..!!
Selected Pledges
Click on pledge below to read many more.
As an educator who is serious about teaching the truth I will not be bullied into silence. I will do my part in the fight for equity and equality by making sure my students are most equipped to fight this ugliness in the real world.
Yes, the truth of American history needs to be taught, but also its impact on the rest of the world, such as its role in WWII. I just finished teaching a college-level course on the Holocaust, and could not believe how little the students knew about the rest of the world’s participation in the war! They seemed to believe that WWII was ended by the US alone!
“When you begin to do things that raise the achievement of the poorest and disenfranchised students, you may not always get applause. You need to be ready for that.” Dr. Asa Hilliard
“Resistance is a powerful motivator precisely because it enables us to fulfill our longing to achieve our goals while letting us boldly recognize and name the obstacles to those achievements.”
Dr. Derrick Bell
Our young people deserve the truth and it is our kuleana (responsibility) to give space and opportunity for the truth and the difficult conversations.
If we don’t teach it all, we teach nothing…
Social justice is a major theme of my Humanities 7 course, and my school uses Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s HILL framework (development of identity, skills, knowledge, Criticality) to frame our entire curriculum. Student agency through research work and essay writing, and action-oriented civic engagement work, define what we “cover” in my course.