Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Timi Birch | Encino, CA
Smitha Radhakrishnan | Natick, MA
It is critically important to the future stability of the whole country to convey an accurate history of the U.S. to all our students, and this conversation needs to start in elementary school. It's not only a moral obligation, it's a question of national security now and in the future.
Tracey Mayes | New Haven, CT
I truly believe we cannot move forward as a country unless we are willing to learn and accept the truth about racism and the history of America.
Manuel Gochez | Los Angeles, CA
It is important for students to not get a whitewashed view of history. Teaching the truth is essential for us to create a better tomorrow.
Eva Sullivan | Silver Spring, MD
The most important skill we teach in high school is critical thinking. Students must learn to examine different points of view and express their own beliefs based on reasoning and evidence.
Madeline Higgins | Indianapolis, IN
Students of all ages and backgrounds deserve an honest education, and dedicated educators who are willing to imagine a better world with them.
Anne Randall | Larchmont, NY
Children -- and everyone -- need to be taught the full history of the United States -- including the racist events that we would rather gloss over or forget.
Kamisha Morrison | Cleveland, OH
The truth and facts are not up for debate
Perri Leviss | Barrington, RI
Truth is essential to our democracy.
Elizabeth Meadows | Evanston, IL
Knowing the truth is necessary for everyone to be free.
Ethel Kennedy | West Palm Beach, FL
I disagree with the laws our governor has put in place regarding history and critical race theory!
Brooke Bertholet | Fairfax, VA
It is my professional obligation as an educator that I deliver to my students the truth regarding many historical issues that won't leave them unable to commit to their obligations as citizens in a truly democratic society.
Laura Koroski | Chicago, IL
Deliberately forbidding the teaching of issues of race, racism, and racial violence is a moral wrong. To erase the history of resilient people of color and prevent the next generation from learning about ongoing white supremacy is an act of violence, and I will not stand by and watch it happen.
Allison Connolly | Oakhurst, NJ
Ruth Lindahl | Sacramento, CA
My students are the faces of underserved and marginalized people, from the US and around the world. I have a responsibility to detect the white-perspective biases of the curriculum and the entire educational system, and infuse culturally responsive material that celebrates the genius and joy of all my students.
Timothy Green IV | Rio Rancho, NM
We must counter hegemonic thought that is exclusionary and historically inaccurate. If not, we will continue to see the erosion of our democratic norms and continuation of racist policy, history, and laws. We must counter the rise of fascism and hate, as educational institutions are the last bastions of what true democracy can look like. "We must teach the truth about the past, in order to defend justice in the future." -I forgot the historian but he just passed.
Carlyn Oropez | Los Angeles, CA
I believe we need to empower kids and give them the tools to research topics for themselves, use critical thinking skills, see themselves and their heritage's role in our history no matter what their background is, and learn about history- the good, bad and ugly in order to make the best decisions for the future.
Suzie Peachin | Portland, OR
Educators don't hide the truth from students or ourselves.
Pam Brandman | Larchmont, NY
I feel it is important to teach (and to learn) our country's full history, no matter how imperfect or flawed. This country has much to be proud of but we have also made mistakes and perpetuated inequity through our history. This must be acknowledged in order that we don't continue making the same mistakes and to begin to correct the wrongs and to heal.
Colleen Wilford | Montpelier, VT
teaching children the truth about our collective history is crucial for us all to move forward as a democratic nation.
Heather DeLude | Trumbull, CT
Suzie Peachin | Portland, OR
Patricia Fleetwood | Lansdale, PA
the truth matters.
Sarah Wirein-Rudy | Keene, NH
I will teach my students the truth. I will not be silenced in an effort to perpetuate racism, colonialism, sexism, and ageism. Acknowledgement of intentional systems, acts of hatred, thievery, etc is the first and necessary step to healing and honoring our past and learning from it to make a better 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.