Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Thor Tillberg | Brooklyn, NY
Katrina Levin | Portland , OR
I am a white teacher who believes that we need justice for all. I teach students history and want them to learn the history of this country through the lens of those whose stories have been left out of mainstream history. This is my pledge to do what I can to empower my students.
MARJORIE CHARLES | Brooklyn, NY
History shouldn't be hidden or it will be repeated.
Tara Lyon | Santa Rosa, CA
"None of us are free until all of us are free!"
Daniel Levine | Baltimore, MD
Kalyn Thomas | Minneapolis, MN
Shawn LeValley | Seattle, WA
We need to open the realities of the past and present to honor people’s lives and if we are to have any hope for the future.
Monica Moran | Lafayette, CA
Jonelle Benton | Conway, SC
Alison Ellsworth | Portland, OR
We need to learn from the past and present to improve the future.
Camellia Termini | Belen, NM
Dismantle white supremacy
Nina Asher | Minneapolis, MN
Veritas.
Stephane Barile | Union City, CA
Narcisa Navarro | Riverside, CA
I believe in CRT, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and the need for Ethnic Studies in school!
Art Lewandowski | Van Buren, OH
The goal of social studies education is to prepare young citizens for critical thinking and organizational and civic decision making. This cannot be done if social studies classrooms are prohibited from discourse around current events and divisive issues. All perspectives must be considered for human and social development.
Amanda Bresie | Addison, TX
Truth matters.
TESSA BROWN | Inglewood, CA
Amy Wenzel | Farmingdale, NY
Children are aware of inequities in society. They need and deserve to know why they exist, and what they can do to change them.
Natalia Beardslee | Chantilly, VA
Every child deserves to hear a true account of our history - past and present. If we don't teach the truth, than we are consciously protecting white privilege, erasing parts of our history and negating the identities of our community. We need to consistently teach the holistic truth about our country so children understand, for example, why we say "Black Lives Matter" and why instead of celebrating Columbus Day we are celebrating Indigenous People's Day. Children deserve to hear multiple viewpoints so they can learn from our countries' mistakes and be empowered do better going forward. Teaching American exceptionalism is lying to our students. Is that the example we want to set?
Alyce Baker | Woodward Twp, PA
Such legislation undermines the truth and does not prepare students to be global citizens. Rather, it wrongly shields students from the truth and is exclusionary. American kids deserve better.
Jody Zirkelbach | Racine, WI
I feel our students deserve to know the truth about our history, and be taught the history most of us did not learn about in school.
joana kirchhoff | Bozeman, MT
The distortion of history taught in Montana schools is a disservice to the citizens of Montana.Teaching history included the defense of proof and the responsibility to teach whole truth which does include the realities of slavery and how it has shaped our country.
Carrie Matsuo | Beaverton, OR
the cruelty is unconscionable and must be exposed.
William Goldner | Long Beach, CA
mary mccracken | La Grande, OR
Better to learn the truth early that to later learn you've been hoodwinked by our education system. We have committed atrocities since our arrival in the new world all around the world once we gained power. The only way to change OUR government and economic systems is to learn what they are doing.
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.