Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Leah LaVelle | San Diego, CA
Truth is power and this country needs to learn the truth in order to heal.
Courtney Dover | Orange, NJ
Liana Luna , NJ
Dianna Morton | Provincetown, MA
Truth heals
Jaime Abarca | San Diego, CA
Loring Nagle | Raritan, NJ
Love wins.
Emily N | NY, NY
Charlene Bing | Somerset, NJ
History should not be cherry picked to make people feel better about themselves at the expense of an opportunity to grow and progress as a society. If you are unaware of the mistakes of your forebearers then you are doomed to repeat them. Never again.
Shannon Proctor | Albany, OR
Change is needed and to get to that change we need truth to be taught to everyone!
Charles Willis | Los Angeles, CA
I believe in dismantling systemic racism and oppressive white supremacy.
ariella greenberg | Chicago, IL
Lasana Kazembe | Indianapolis, IN
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Jerry Tillotson | Montpelier, VT
Regina Morantz-Sanchez | Ann Arbor, MI
I am a newly retired (I am 79 yrs) professor and believe in absolute necessity of individuals living in their country knowing its history--from kindergarten up to Ph,d !
irina lames , NY
Shlana Sims | Brooklyn, OH
If we, as a nation, do not teach the hard history, getting to the "good, the bad, and the ugly", we will not be able to move forward. The generational hurt that oppression has caused in this nation cannot be swept under a rug or ignored when it still affects the majority of people in this nation.
Taylor Vivanco | Santa Ana, CA
I believe in my students.
Duane Swacker , MO
Stephen Scherer | Marysville, OH
I am ally
Connie Ables-Rigsbee | Carmel, IN
I must teach the new research and findings to my students much as it would be completely unreasonable and negligent for my medical doctor to use only findings up to the 1980s to practice in his/her profession. There is no such thing as traditional history; only "antiquated information about history" and no serious professional person stops learning and applying knowledge. I feel confident that I frame newer information and research to my upper level high school students in such a way that they actually value knowing more points of views. Our diverse population requires attention and all students benefit from more understandings of our past.
Kennel Etienne | Boston, MA
Truth matters
Heather Nonaca | Modesto, CA
the attack on US History education is counter to the ideas expressed in the founding documents of our nation. In order to "create a more perfect union" we have to be honest about the history of our union. While we encourage students to use their critical thinking skills and while we understand that historical events can be interpreted differently, factual truths should not be ignored or hidden from our students.
Katie Shimer | Indianapolis, IN
More than 90% of my students are African-American and LatinX. I will never present a sanitized version of history that makes legislators and their rural / suburban constituents more comfortable hiding the truth for their own (white) children. The lawmakers banging podiums and weeping into the flag while pledging their actions are for the good of everyone haven't spared a passing thought for my students of color who already know how the system works against and without them. We need to lay the hypocrisy bare.
Pamela Castro | Payson, AZ
Jonathan McClintock | Philadelphia, PA
My students aren't dumb and know when someone is lying to them.
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.