Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Janet Turner | Decatur, GA
We must lead and teach with courage and light, not fear and suppression.
Davida Denton | Alpharetta, GA
We, all of us, aren’t truly free unless all our stories are told, and unless all our futures hold the same spectrum of opportunity.
Elisabeth Harris | Malden, MA
Kids can't learn to think critically if information is kept from them. Instead of suppressing, let's figure out ways to help teachers learn to teach facts ethically and morally.
Luci avery | New Bern, NC
Children need to be taught the truth. If black and brown chhildren (children of the global majority) can experience racism and survive and even thrive--white children can learn about it with no harm done.
Kathleen Rodger-Sachs | Franklin Lakes, NJ
I teach clinical interns how to become teachers. We explore implicit bias in articles and textbooks and their responsibility in exposing untruths.
Cybele Candau | Lake Oswego, OR
It’s essential to know real history in order to learn and do better. Pretending like atrocities haven’t happened doesn’t erase their existence or the generational trauma they’ve created.
Sylvia Elie-Rivera | New York, NY
I cannot imagine teaching anything but the truth!
Scot Evans | Miami, FL
I refuse to lie to young people.
Eric Collins | New York, NY
Teaching about the role racism, sexism, homophobia and other oppressive systems have played in American society is not only truthful, but will help students to be better equipped to dismantle those systems so that our country can be better and actually live up to its founding ideals. The current right wing hysteria against “critical race theory” is just another incident in the long history of pushing back against progress, and I refuse to be complicit with this latest attack.
Michael Rooney | Portland, OR
We must understand our past to move forward and build coalitions among diverse groups of people. We must that understand how our societal systems have harmed some while benefitting others.
Yvonne David | Alpharetta, GA
Elizabeth Bertolozzi | Lynn, MA
Truth and facts need to be taught- how else will democracy grow?
Roger Green | Brooklyn, NY
An education that censors truth, facts, and a scientific method concerning how the concept of race is socially constructed and has been orchestrated by some to rationalize the enforcement of institutional racism within the legislative process, courts, and public institutions of our nation is a moral imperative for a citizenry that must embrace a community of inquiry as it aspires to form a more perfect Union.An education that encourages a critical and active citizenry is the life blood for an evolving democratic- republic.
Victoria Moskowitz | Brookline, MA
Confronting the impact of systemic racism on our society is essential in order to move forward together. As a recently retired teacher, I support the efforts of active educators to teach the truth and help our students understand themselves and their world more fully.
Shelley Hartz | Bridgewater, NJ
We will never dismantle systematic racism and be able to move forward. until we teach our communities about the real history of the United states
HEESANG KIM | Alexandria, VA
Jayne Conway | New Shoreham, RI
the TRUTH matters!
Steven Sandman | Pine Plains, NY
Jeremiah Mead | Concord, MA
As a retired teacher, I wish to express my support for active educators who are committed to open discussion of history and social conditions, and to curricula and methods that foster such discussion.
Annalise Busekrus | Kailua, HI
Acknowledging and reckoning with the truths of the past, no matter how terrible, is essential to moving forward as a country, as a people, to building a future of unity and equity where all people are free. We must equip our students with truth, and the ability to question and converse about history and the role it plays in the present and future.
Pamela Castro | Payson, AZ
Kira Caluza | Los Angeles, CA
I am signing my name because I believe when we teach history we must include the stories and voices of all people.
Karen Jenks | Jackson, MI
Arielle Arizpe | Austin, TX
Maria Gomez | San Jose, CA
Teaching the real history of the United States is liberating for students who face systemic and institutional racism in every facet of their lives. Teaching the truth about American history empowers our students and helps them understand how to affect systemic and institutional change and to fight to ensure America lives up to its ideals.
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.