Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Joshua Zucker | Menlo Park, CA
Matthew Moore | Greenbelt, MD
Refusing to teach the painful truths about our country doesn’t make us stronger, it weakens us, because we refuse to confront our mistakes and learn from them. We can never live up to the promises made at the foundation of this country until we take a painful look at our past and learn from it so that we can become better.
Rebecca M Carlson | Glenwood, MN
Ashley Williams | Sugar Hill, GA
Elizabeth Diaz | Bronx, NY
We will not be silenced!
Michele Johnson | Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Devon Day | Telšiai
The truth shall set you free. I will not censor the truth!
Heather Rooks | Sun City, AZ
I pledge to teach the truth regardless of legislation.
Richard Goodwin | Dallas, TX
chonk pepe | Manchester, CT
Brenda Jones | Milwaukee, WI
Karen Parker | Statesville, NC
I teach art appreciation. It is impossible to teach the background of many works of art, the time period they were created, the cultural and social forces at play, without discussing the historical events around them. Some of the most notable works of American art delve directly into the subject of the Civil War: "Prisoners from the Front" or "The Cotton Pickers" by Winslow Homer, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" by Eastman Johnson takes it's title from an Irish ballad popular with troops from both sides. He also painted fleeing slaves: "A Ride for Liberty–The Fugitive Slaves, March 2, 1862"How, exactly, are we to discuss what artists have explicitly painted, or written about in novels and poems or made music about? Or will those works be banished from view and forbidden in discussion, too?The "memory laws" legislators are currently creating evoke an authoritarian Stalinist Russia. Stalin suppressed information about Ukrainian genocide he engendered by means of an intentional, human-made famine. Russia passed a number of laws making it illegal to speak or write honestly about the current and historical crimes of the Soviet Union, including thousands of Ukrainian deaths.In the US, the basis of a number of these laws hinges on the "discomfort" a person might feel upon hearing historical facts. Discomfort with new and different information is inevitable, unless your goal is to raise a nation of protected, unaware "snowflakes". Above all, a discussion of history and historical context is not intended as a therapy session. It is intended to be a presentation of a set of facts to be examined critically.
Troy Hill | Lorain, OH
We will never reach the goal of equity (etc.) until we reconcile with our past and actively include the histories of marginalized communities.
Amanda Pokorny | Elyria, OH
Seth Rader | New York, NY
Hiding the truth about past injustices maintains current injustices. Learning from past struggles for justice gives hope for a more just future.
Peter McLaren | Orange, CA
Pauline Buis | Niceville, FL
Tricia Joseph | Pelham, NY
Siobhan Senier | Epping, NH
Tahnee Sweeney | Davis, CA
Luis Barcelo | Tarrytown, NY
Hollie Blake | Greensboro, NC
Kellye Cunningham | Louisville, KY
Irene McGinty | Watsonville, CA
Amy Burns | Mansfield, OH
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.