Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Sarah Peterson | La Jolla, CA
"We have in this country a dynamic where we really don't like to talk about our problems. We don't like to talk about our history. And because of that, we really haven't understood what it's meant to do the things we've done historically." -Bryan Stevenson
Melissa Blank | Ash Grove, MO
As a professional educator and historian for the past twenty years, I have always presented the facts to my students at the age appropriate level and with a sense of compassion and truth. I believe the second we do not address what truly happened to our country in its history, we no longer can appreciate the hard fought gains by all people of our country, whether white, black, Latino, or Indigenous.
Candi Martin | Slinger, WI
history can't be whitewashed!
Susan Frankel | Burlingame, CA
If we lie to our students, why should they trust anything we say?
Stephanie Krzeminski | Oswego, IL
Sharon Hansen | Tempe, AZ
All Americans deserve to know the truth about our racist, white supremacist history of violence against BIPOC. I should not have had to have been 66 years old before I confronted this history for the first time. Although the sins of my forebears are not my personal sins, the current racist situation in America IS my problem. America will never move forward until, like Germany, we hold up our ugly past, learn what actually happened (not some whitewashed version of the truth), and endeavor to make reckoning with it all.
Jane Feinberg | Belmont, MA
The truth must be told. It is an act of Patriotic love to face the truth and to make visible the stories that have been suppressed for so many centuries. There will always be those who cannot look at reality, but a growing coalition of the willing can take us forward into a more nuanced understanding of how our nation was built on the backs of others.
Erin Frazier | San Rafael, CA
Bethany McAndrew | Baltimore, MD
I believe that students need to see themselves in the curricula of their classes. I believe in telling the truth and allowing my students to grapple with the messier sides of history that exist. I believe that students have the capacity to understand nuance and to ask deep questions. I believe in empowering young people so that they will push for peace, progress, and a more equitable and just world.
MERY LIZARDO | Lawrence, MA
Our students and staff deserve the opportunity and support to reckon with the true history of this country. True change cannot happen if we are unable to critically think about how this country’s history informs our biases, and more importantly, how it limits our access to equitable opportunities.
Willie James | Tampa, FL
Those who do not understand their past are doomed to repeat their failures.
Admaira Roman | Phoenix, AZ
We must put up a fight for what is just and combat these unjust laws. This unjust legislation upholds violent institutions that will continue to abuse marginalized communities while refusing to face historical facts and our experiences.
Barbara Ferrari | Watertown, MA
Laurie Sevigny | Poland, ME
Kara Desmond | Hayward, CA
our history is filled with both pain and progress. In order to heal and start to move forward, it is paramount that we acknowledge the truth and learn from the history of racism in order to rise above the power that it still holds on our society.
Michelle Okuno | Chicago, IL
Melissa Wallerstein | Verona, NJ
As a teacher of U.S. History and world geography teaching the truth is the heart and soul of my profession.
Kate Culligan | New York, NY
Shawn Burich | Albuquerque, NM
Without truth, there is no future.
ken salo | Champaign, IL
Elizabeth Tanner | Mesa, AZ
I care about my students and want to teach them to think.
Sepideh Sallee | Deerfield, IL
Nirvana Scott | Atlanta, GA
Children deserve a good education.
Darolyn "Lyn" Jones | Muncie, IN
Lily Smith | San Diego, CA
This is necessary and needs to happen now. CRT needs to be in school's it is and should be considered a fundamental right to education and one of the key steps to a healthier, more equitable, accountability, better society
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.