Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Jayne Korotev | Milwaukee, WI
Our students need to know the truth in order to make the necessary changes our country needs to become tolerant and accepting.
Bradley Cramer | Milwaukee, WI
I'm going to continue to teach what I've always taught: history from the perspective of workers.
Lura Ercolano | Seattle, WA
I expect my students to develop problem solving skills for the 21st Century, which requires open eyes about problems. I support students' learning to argue from evidence, which requires access to evidence. Mathematics is the language of change - what is changing, at what rate? What does the data say?
Jennifer Allen | Seattle, WA
We are at risk of losing our democracy.
Aerika Street | Seattle, WA
It is time to tell the truth and build a just education system that truly serves our communities, making our communities safe, healthy, strong, and thriving.
Chantei Alves | Roslindale, MA
My students deserve to learn about the true history of their people as well as others, and how it intertwines in the true history of the United States. "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey
Lis Regula | Dayton, OH
Susanna Waldrop | Seattle, WA
I believe in the truth. I believe Black Lives Matter.
Cindy Kornbluh | Seattle, WA
I believe students deserve the truth.
rafael ramos | Santa Ana, CA
a history that ignores facts is historical fiction.
Sarah Torok-Gerard | Alliance, OH
I will be teaching my college students about all critical theory (race, gender, Latinx, sexual orientation, etc.). I teach a class on prejudice and power. Many of my students find the course an invaluable learning experience that widens their perspectives about social justice issues and the state of our current political and cultural institutions. A good number of them live in small, rural towns and have never heard of the concepts, people, and stories that I share with them in my class. I also teach a course on gender as well, and my students have similar experiences. CRT and the concepts related to systemic oppression NEED to be discussed in the classroom in a historical and current context. Policies that perpetuate forms of oppression will only continue unless we become aware of and then take action to change/eradicate them. This starts in the classroom.
Basimah Abdullah | Milwaukee, WI
Lies are for cowards. Teachers are not cowards.
Annemarie Plumpe | Seattle, WA
this is ridiculous! How can you teach "Huckleberry Finn" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" without talking about race? Do the laws also say that teachers cannot answer questions from students? And what about when students make comments or contributions to class discussions, are teachers supposed to censor them as well? This is the epitome of privilege, a predominately white group of mostly males "gets" to decide what is and what is not true. Instead of banning CRT, create mandatory training on discussing race without negatively impacting students' sense of self-worth? Because white teachers make mistakes on both sides of the racial divide.
Dena Vaillancourt | New Haven, CT
Teaching the truth, the whole truth, is not only good for some but ALL students. All students deserve to learn the good and the bad to be truly free.
Dawn Liska-Tollefson | Madison, WI
Sheri Cash | Moore, SC
my personal child is an adopted black kid and needs a more honest representation of history to establish a stronger, more productive future.
Natalie Young | Dekalb, IL
Knowledge is power; people in privilege have been trying forever to ensure knowledge is NOT shared. This has to change!
Ryan Wozniak | Elmont, NY
Karen Davenport-Diaz | Norwich, CT
It is important for all of us to know all of our history, good and bad. I feel for the students in those states who will not have access to key history unless their parents or communities can support them.
Kristin Bigley | Greendale Village of, WI
The truth matters.
Rossana Serres | Independence, MO
Rebekah Engleright | Newport, ME
Christopher Drake | Harper Woods, MI
Laura Gluckman | Pomeroy, WA
Educators must always speak truth to power and learn alongside their students how to do so.
Phaedra Reid | Winston Salem, NC
It is an immoral action to pretend as if oppression and discrimination has never happened or isn't currently happening. Lying to students only further shows that systemic discrimination is alive and well. Students need to know the truth so they can take the truth and make change.
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.