Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Jennifer Engel | Milwaukee, WI
teaching the truth empowers my students.
Michelle DavisSobocinski
It is important for our children and the public to learn accurate facts of our history. We can learn from the wrong and do the right.
Sarah Reuter | Brookfield, WI
The truth matters and our students deserve to learn it.
Nina Lasky | New York, NY
if we cannot teach the truth, we can only go backwards, and I am not going back.
James Foster | Chicago, IL
I refuse to lie to any student. Refusing to acknowledge and deal with the problems in our society only guarantees their continued existence. We must learn from the past to improve our future.
Emmanuel Harris II | Wilmington, NC
Lorinda Flores | Milwaukee, WI
I am committed to teaching the truth and for making sure that my young students receive age-appropriate historical education so that they can learn from past mistakes and past successes.
LeAnn Cassidy | Middlebury, CT
Teaching history will sometimes be uncomfortable. As history teachers, our job is to teach students to think critically about our nation’s past so that we may understand the present and do better for the future.
Pamela Scripture | Middle River, MD
Our students deserve to learn our true history.
Jocelyn Fait | Milwaukee, WI
Josiah Lookingbill | Ellicott City, MD
The truth matters. Denying the truth harms my students.
Hannah Matti | Milwaukee, WI
Kathy Xiong | Milwaukee, WI
Teaching the truth about the history of our country makes us stronger as a nation. Knowledge is empowering. Our students deserve the truth, they are our future. If we want to do better, we must start with honesty no matter how ugly that truth might be.
Rebecca Bell | Pacific, WA
First, I want to advocate for our students by ensuring they are afforded age-appropriate opportunities to ask questions, be informed, and make decisions based on the truth. Teaching the truth is a way we can educate and empower changemakers. Second, I want to advocate for human rights believing that truth should be spoken with conviction - not condemnation.
Liana Smith | Takoma Park, MD
I am committed to teaching the truth and for making sure that my students -through education- are able to help create a society that is equitable and just for everyone.
Marji Karish | Denver, CO
we cannot reach our full potential without understanding our past.
Alisha Heafner | Lees Summit, MO
My kids deserve to know history that was, not the history we wish was. Because our POC friends deserve better than the trash we have been taught
Linda Aguinaga | Avon, OH
Students deserve the truth, because they can handle it better than most adults.
Delina McPhaull | Cleburne, TX
I believe we should tell the truth about history. Let's tell the truth and see what happens.
Michael Brislen | Penn Laird, VA
I am committed to truth and to my students.
Alyssa Molinski | Milwaukee, WI
Benjamin Overcash | Ashburn, VA
teaching the truth is my moral responsibility, and I will not lie to my students or hide the truth from them.
Christopher Wiegman | Oregon Village of, WI
I believe in truthful education that doesn’t hide the ugly parts of our country’s history, but instead puts them in the open and empowers students to learn from our past to ensure a better future.
APRIL DUNOVANT | Winston-Salem, NC
I am a Social Studies teacher in NC and it is our moral obligation to teach children the truth about history. Knowing the truth will enable students to be better decision makers and make positive contributions to society.
Delene Huggins | Hickory, NC
Our state has just adopted new Social Studies standards and i am reading about backlash. The term Critical Race Theory is being used without any understanding that term is misleading and you can teach basic truths without it. If students and parents are upset about events in our past then I feel like I have done my job.
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.