Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Kristin Childs | Vista, CA
I can both love my country and acknowledge that there are problems in our past and present that need to be addressed. My son is biracial. He has grown up knowing that his lighter skin gives him different treatment in some parts of our country than his darker skinned father, aunts, and cousins experience. This injustice and inequity have gone on long enough. We do our students a disservice by not teaching them the truth about our past. They are our future. They can be part of the solution if we are honest with them about where we have come from and where we still are as a country if we do not actively work for change together.
Katherine Dixon | Hemet, CA
Arianne Whiting | Vallejo, CA
Ebony Batiste | Los Angeles, CA
I don't want the truth to disappear.
Claudia Flores | Burlingame, CA
I believe in removing the romanticized version of U.S. history when teaching children. Lifting the veil to show, analyze and discuss U.S. history and it’s treatment of indigenous first people, enslaved people and any “othering” of people of color can shed insight into how those in power continued to pass off this “legacy” and how we can today, learn from those mistakes, acknowledging that our country is not perfect and continues to be a work in progress.
Tara Miller | Hayward, CA
Educators need to regularly revise and increase their comfort with teaching pre-k to grade 6 truthful, culturally appropriate and age appropriate topics in social justice and history.
Natalie Williams | San Diego, CA
School needs to focus on building students to be the future. Not what society says they need their future to look like. Students need to focus on what matters most and leave politics out. They already have so much they do in a day and they don't need peoples opinions of this stuff in schools. Passing this will only add to more issues in school where they don't belong, especially with kids learning who they are.
Chauncey Mann III | Ontario, CA
I am an educator by trade but I'm also a Christian or a follower of Christ by choice, and I make every effort to live my life according to the biblical principles and values as taught throughout the Bible, especially the Gospels of the New Testament. Therefore, love must be at the center of everything we do. "Love that does not satisfy justice is no love at all." (MLK). But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-falling stream! Amos 5:24 NV. Accordingly, I stand with those who are for truth-telling and uplifting the power of organizing and solidarity that move us toward a more just society in America and a more just world.
Olga Neverovitch | Austin, TX
Catherine Lewis | Bothell, WA
We owe it to our kids to tell the truth about who we have been in order to allow them to forge a new path for our future.
Rebecca Frederickson | Sacramento, CA
I refuse to lie to students about the history of this nation!
Elaine Dolgin | Stevenson Ranch, CA
Mary Allen | Sutter Creek, CA
Nancy Glenn | Redlands, CA
Mark Schulte | Fontana, CA
I have always striven to tell the whole truth of our country and the world. I am appalled at the many attempts by so many people in so many states to prevent us, including criminalizing teachers, from teaching our students the truth. I want to go on the record as supporting honest teaching to empower our students to be participants and leaders in a better future for our country and world.
Vanessa Scott | San Jacinto, CA
Eva Turner | Sacramento, CA
Only the truth is worthy of our time and breath.
Martin Jespersen | Cypress, CA
I agree with the pledge.
Tessa Green | Elk Grove, CA
I am the mother of black children who deserve representation and honesty in the classroom. As a white woman I wish I had not been in my 30s when I learned the truth about so many systems of oppression. As a teacher all of my students deserve to know the truth about history as well as feel our classroom is a safe and welcoming place for all!
Amanda Macias | Fontana, CA
representation, whole truth, and education should not be in the context of a dominant culture, binary system. We should teach diverse perspectives so that we do not repeat the past.
Kristin Howell | Palo Alto, CA
Julie Walker | Chula Vista, CA
As an education veteran and parent of two children who have grown up in a diverse community, I value the honesty and truth my colleagues have taught and continue to teach to the students in my community.
Kristi Jouett | South Lake Tahoe, CA
Integrity is important.
Laura Lovelace | Pasadena, CA
Truth is important.
Julio Macuixtle | Indio, CA
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.