Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Perri Leviss | Barrington, RI
We must stand up and ensure that we teach the truth in order to ensure our democracy and freedom.
Katherine Bell | Sacramento, CA
Mary Hart | Silver Spring, MD
Our children deserve the truth.
Barbara Novelli | Santa Cruz, CA
Our democracy demands informed citizens who can analyze events and make decisions based upon facts and on the greater good of our society.
Tim O'Connor | Perth South, ON, CA
Teaching about equity, social justice and peace is the very heart of education. Efforts to silence social justice education have led to oppression all over the globe. I am proud to join other educators in standing up for Social Justice Education.Tim O'ConnorSt. Marys, Canada
Jessie Barker | Brooklyn, NY
It is our responsibility as agents of change to teach the truth. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced,” James Baldwin
Roberta Williams | Itasca, IL
Martha Erickson | Underhill, VT
The story of history needs to reflect all of our students. Without a commitment to telling the whole story we perpetuate the broken system which is failing BIPOC and LGBTQ community members.
Marianne McNallen | New London, CT
A functioning society requires knowledge of its history.
Blontas Mitchell | Springfield , Ohio, OH
This is quoted a lot “The Truth Will Set You Free”, yet it is so true. The truth about our history will set all of us free. Lies set up this false frame of our country, these lies set up the racist thinking we all have been navigating with through the world. As more and more truth is revealed, and more and more people let theirselves see, hear and feel the truth Change can happen. Not a truth that demonizes people, a truth that breaks the lie of Supremacy, of someone being better than another, that set up our institutions,and government by laws ,policies and procedures to discriminate against certain groups of people to impede those groups from life, liberty and the pursuit of equality.
Kimberly Knight | Trumansburg, NY
We have no chance for a just world unless we teach the truth.
Jennifer Morris | Gresham, WI
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, ... infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana
Mario Peri | Portland, OR
I will not lie to my students. Young people need to understand all actors in US and World History, not just a narrow interpretation that favors white privilege.
Paula Henson | Los Angeles, CA
I believe in teaching the truth!
Lea Kelley | Tacoma, WA
My students deserve the truth.
Jo Wix | Hendersonville, TN
I will not submit to dangerous laws that will perpetuate racism in our country.
Ilhan Avcioglu | Andover, MA
I believe that teachers are professionals and should have the freedom to teach history that includes multiple voices and perspectives.
Eric Swehla | Portland, OR
It’s not just that the students need to be honestly taught to be critical thinkers, it’s that everyone in our society will benefit from a future filled with better businesses, better science, better medicine, better families, and better neighbors.
Jan Osborn | Orange, CA
We cannot become our best selves if we attempt to hide the truth of our past.
Ellen Shannon | Ann Arbor, MI
I believe our students deserve the best and most truthful information in our classes. As faculty members, my experience is that we work tirelessly at fact-checking, maintaining professional standards, and respect for the needs of our students.
Megan Taylor | Denver, CO
Anita Faulding | Baldwin, NY
I taught for 20 years in a NYC public schools. Maintain academic freedom and teach the truth.
Emily Todras | Brooklyn, NY
Our kids need to know the truth in order to create a better reality.
LYNDA MOSS | Winston Salem, NC
I feel very strongly about teaching the truth of History. Education, REAL education is powwer, and those who would dismantle the teaching of history want the power over those who ar not properly educated.
Kathryn Young | Denver, CO
The political theater of just telling the truth has got to stop. History is hard. History is unfair. We can at least learn what happened and how it relates to today, that should not be politicized.
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.