Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Patty Smith | Petersburg, VA
Teaching the true history of the US is critical. Our job as teachers isn't to deposit information to our students -- it isn't about propaganda or creating a false narrative about how great this country is. Our job is to help students discover who they are and what they believe--- and for that, they need to know the TRUE history of where we came from and how we got to where we are.
Grace Mather | Decatur, GA
Students deserve the truth. In order to live and teach with love, you must disrupt unloving systems.
Haley Malm | Cape Elizabeth, ME
Every content area has a responsibility to teach the complexities of culture and history.
David Brady | Arnold, CA
I want to equip my students to think critically through controversial material, not shield them from it.
Candace Kluba | Washington, MO
The only way to move forward is to acknowledge the past and current pain and do better.
JORDAN Thierry | Beaverton, OR
Laurie Sarver
we need to teach the truth. Our history isn’t perfect- not even close. Students need to to learn the full story in order to understand who we are in order to make informed decisions, leading to a more just society.
Kelly Kinahan | Louisville, KY
Chris Mesford Kenoyer | Richland, WA
If I don't teach the truth, why should my students believe anything that I tell them. Because lying is a sin. Because teaching students critical thinking and investigative skills is part of teaching them how to think for themselves.
Jodi Underwood | Bayfield, CO
Morgan Sheppard | Hamden, CT
Kristen Clarke | Asbury Park, NJ
Kari Lehman | Chicago, IL
Teaching the truth is important in order to eradicate white supremacy and center BIPOC in history.
Anne Wunneburger | Fort Worth, TX
Students deserve a representative history and public educators should honor that.
Kristen jacobs-andresen | Circle Pines, MN
My students are primarily adults who have moved here from all over the world.They are bright and kind. We need to face our history BEFORE we can heal as a nation.To lie, or omit parts of the past only compound problems and delay correcting the past
Emily Merle | West Hempstead, NY
We need to teach the truth and learn from our history, not hide it.
Nancy Lewis | Baltimore, MD
Not teaching the true history of the United States has led us to where we are! In age appropriate ways, the public constituency needs to learn the facts of United States racist capitalism and indigenous people's genocide.That specific language is useful for older students. My second graders learned how Eastern Woodland tribes were "pushed off their land" and how enslaved people not only survived but thrived to inform and develop the Black culture we have today.
Carrie Mattern | Flint Twp, MI
Students deserve the truth.
Barbara Penning | Littleton, CO
We must teach comprehensive not selective history so our children can begin to understand systemic racism
Megan Guice | Seattle, WA
Isabella Porchas | Tucson, AZ
Dr. Ellie Larmouth | Tower, MN
Teaching the truth and facts of the history of this nation must be protected.
Patrick Kelsall | Denver, CO
You can’t be neutral on a moving train
Kylee Weron | Clackamas, OR
David Horvath | Louisville, KY
Education requires that we teach ALL history in our schools, whether or not it makes some people uncomfortable or not. We learn, know better, and do better.
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.