Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Deb Christenson | Los Angeles, CA
Kimberly Redigan | Dearborn Heights, MI
This orchestrated and well-funded effort to stifle teachers and students cannot go unchallenged. I will never lie to my students.
marilyn frankenstein | Cambridge, MA
Linnea Weiland | Metuchen, NJ
It is unbelievable to me that anyone who lives anywhere in the United States does not understand the harm that institutional racism does to all people.
Nathan Cholger | Bay City, MI
Without a honest discussion of our nation's history how can students fulfill there eventual role in society. We are not a perfect Union but rather a union who is seeking to be "more perfect" While perfection may never be fully achieved, it should always be the goal.
Peter Blankfield | Tucson, AZ
I refuse to "...bear false witness." I believe the United States is a really good country, but it is not nor has it been perfect. To fully and honestly prepare K-12 students to be informed and engaged citizens, they must be allowed to analyze the good and the BAD in order to make proper decisions about the future that avoid the pitfalls of past generations, including the most recent experience this nation has had with a GOP president. All the laws being passed across the nation violate teachers' free speech and I refuse to GO SILENTLY INTO THE NIGHT!
Nola Butler-Byrd | SPRING VALLEY, CA
We need to defy the lies and embrace the truth to heal this country and make the world a better place for everyone, not just the privileged few.
Jamilah Scott | Leander, TX
Andrew Zafuto | San Diego, CA
We must teach a complete perspective in various subjects, so much so that we examine both the atrocities AND the triumphs of the human condition as they relate to the movement of humans across our planet over time.
Frank Brodhead | Hastings On Hudson, NY
A good understanding of our history is the foundation for conscientious citizenship.
Andrea Schneider | Woodinville, WA
I believe it is our responsibility to teach students the truth, even if it is unflattering or difficult to accept. By teaching both history and current events, alongside compassion and action, we can help students understand how history impacts present-day and allow them to form their own opinions. As educators, we can create the understanding and opportunity for positive change.
Erin Laird | Seattle, WA
My job is to teach students all perspectives of history and to think critically to make up their mind on their own with all of the information available.
Caryn Anderson | Portland, OR
Telling the truth is what our kids need to hear and deserve!
Debra Cusick | Hammond, IN
If we speak the truth--the same reason it's being opposed--we will reduce racism.
Rita Duarte Herrera | San Jose, CA
I know the power and joy of respecting students’ minds. RLDH ?✊??
Michelle Windell | Pacifica, CA
To teach anything but the truth is immoral.
Nandini Sinha | Brooklyn, NY
Teaching facts are important.
Darlene Cameron | New York City , NY
Douglas Wingeier | Asheville, NC, NC
"...you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free..." (John 8:32).
Carol Morgan | Davenport, CA
It is passed time to abolish white supremacy with the harm it has caused and use our white privilege to support the lives of all people of color. In order for progress to happen, this needs to begin in grade school, teaching the next generation the truth instead of the lies they will spend the rest of their lives unlearning.
Michael McQuillan | Brooklyn, NY
We seek truth with our students to acknowledge, understand and address the moral dilemmas that divide the nation and defy our democratic ideals. Deep thought breeds actions sowing the spirit of community that all of us deserve and to which we are entitled.
Laurie Curtis-Abbe | Ventura, CA
I am signing my name to this petition because if I don’t I will be a politically-controlled hypocrite, instead of a history teacher; if I agree to augment and/or veil the truth of our American and world history in the classroom and exclude the facts/truth about people who created this history and it’s current events, then I am lying to my students. No! A corrupted faction of our U.S. Congress cannot be allowed to augment and veil THE TRUTH about American and world history by handing-picking what does and does not get taught to American students, our next voting generations. If lies are told often enough, they will be believed as “truth.” Democracy and civic education depend upon history teachers (practicing historians) to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from ALL sides.
Althea Harris | Longmont, CO
I choose teaching the truth to children, all children.
Patricia González-Villaseñor | Las Cumbres, MX
how can one teach honestly about the nature of our society without examining how today’s racial inequality is a systemic legacy of this country’s history? The role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history needs to be analyzed and studied.
Martha Jaegers | Saint Louis, MO
This history helps students understand the roots of inequality today and gives them the tools to shape a just future.
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.