Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Michele Miller | Pleasant Hill, CA
It is important to break the age-old narrative that doesn't include BIPOC stories.
fay chelmow | Richmond, VA
The truth will set us free
Monica Austin | Spotsylvania, VA
Knowledge is Power!
Matt Vaudrey | Fontana, CA
It costs me nothing to do so, but it moves me closer toward using my privilege to make noise and further from complacency.
Shauna Williams | Detroit, MI
It is ethically and educationally irresponsible for any teacher to be expected to teach a white washed version of the truth. Our children deserve to k ow all facets of our history. It is the only way to effect positive change in our history that has yet to be made.
Dane M. Paulsen | Santa Cruz, CA
Truth is paramount in a civilized and moral society
Trish Madsen | Mission, KS
We can't prevent future oppression if we don't understand the past and help the next generation understand how to stop it in its many forms.
Denise Miles | Washington, DC
As an educator, I have always understood the importance of teaching the truth and that education itself is an act of social justice. As a mother, I want my child to be taught the truth.
Andrew Tisdale | Grand Rapids, MI
Heidi West | Los Angeles, CA
Truth matters. If we want the next generations to survive and thrive, we have a responsibility to empower them with knowledge about how we got to where we are today through an accurate inclusive accounting of history and the current state of the world.
Tamara Bower | Houston, TX
Teaching the truth about black history is crucial in reconciling US history among all citizens. Children can handle the truth and can learn from the past. It’s the only way forward.
Jane Zanger | Annapolis, MD
We cannot heal as a nation until we tell the truth of our history and acknowledge the trauma and resistance therein.
Denise Weeks | Gwynn Oak, MD
If we do not learn the authentic history, we are fall short in growing as a nation.
Joshua Block | Philadelphia, PA
Education needs to be based on reality, not myths.
Katie Phipps | Perry Hall, MD
Censoring education is a form of oppression.
Justin Brooks | Paradise Valley, AZ
Teaching history requires courage
Susan Garrett | Kansas City, MO
I am an educator in this area and it is critical to teach the truth to our students. Every semesters students express how much they have learned that they were never taught in elementary or high school. They express how important it is to understand the societal issues can have adverse effects on the health of populations, particularly with those who have been historically marginalized. This type of learning and class discussion better prepares students to be great health care professionals.
Colleen Murphy | Edgewater, MD
Truth is the way forward.
Bianca Davis | Philadelphia, PA
History needs to be taught accurately and unbiasedly to fully understand one's future.
Kristalle Herda | Las Vegas, NV
Isabella Porchas | Tucson, AZ
Dianne Smith | Spartanburg, SC
I was born in 1953 in the segregated/jim crow south. As a young black girl, my lived memories of racism, sexism, class inequities, segregated, low-funded schools, cross burnings, terror (the list…) are too vivid in my mind, at the age of 67! However, I remember the Activists and I became an Activist!
Marc Minsker | Washington, DC, DC
Truth wins out over ignorance
Marlene Smith | Lima, OH
I also teach my grandchildren daily in my home and also foster children, when I have them, in my home. Education, especially social and emotional, for children is an everyday process. And no matter what the subject matter i.e., history, literature, civics, all participants should see themselves as part of learning the truth.
Michelle George | Brooklyn, NY
Without truth this country will never get to its promise. We cannot continue to live as teach in lies around race and the genesis Of inequality as we talk about America exceptionality in the same breath. America will survive the truth.
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.