Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Mary Godfrey | Lawndale, CA
We have white washed history in education for too long. It is time we give children the truth and let them have a voice in matters that effect them, their families, their communities, and the world.
Lee Durham Stone | Franklin, KY
Before I even knew what CRT was, I was teaching as best I could the history of white supremacy (without using this term). After all, American history cannot be understood without considering the "dominator culture" (bell hook's term) that has been central to the American experience.Critical for teaching history, CRT rejects the belief that what's in the past is only in the past. It also rejects, as any historian should, the belief that the laws and systems that grew and continue to grow from that past are detached from that past. (Hello to the Expose Critical Race Theory people. You are doing a disservice to everyone.)
wilma rice | Phoenix, AZ
Honesty is the best policy. Our last administration in the White House showed us what chaos occrs when lies are told and believed.
Dalia Hoffman | Chicago, IL
I have a moral obligation to speak the truth and to teach it to my students--all of it, not just the commendable facets of it. I have taken on a solemn responsibility by becoming a teacher, and this begins by looking in the mirror to understand who I am, where I come from, and to embrace the legacy I am vested with--for better and for worse--so that I can own it and begin to repair it in the way that I lead my life. I bring these understandings into the classroom because we cannot heal as individuals and/or as collectives without understanding and speaking our complete truths.
Monica Rojas | Chicago, IL
Janella Riegel | Seattle, WA
Education must be about truth; otherwise it is merely propaganda. Lies are the tools for dismantling democracies. Liberation comes not from ignoring the past but from embracing it and understanding it. We must learn from our past mistakes, acknowledge the ramifications, before we can ever move to a place of healing and reconciliation. We are how we treat each other - and nothing more.
Jennifer Abastillas | London, GB
Emily Jang | Fairport, NY
Elizabeth Sullivan | Chicago, IL
I fear what a future of teaching lies and falsehoods has and will lead to.
Celeste Ramovic | Chicago, IL
Colleen Sheely | Kalona, IA
As an historian we can not deny our history or we are doomed to repeat it. Never again!
Derek Jones | Everett, WA
I believe that we need MORE content and pedagogy that is designed to counteract the history and legacy of racism in this country, not less.
Ilhan Avcioglu | Andover, MA
It is important for teachers/educators to be given the freedom to teach true history, not the kind that textbooks create to sugarcoat events and make them more palatable for the general public.
Ben Roth Shank | Miramar, NZ
All students deserve to learn more than just a dominant narrative. Counter-narratives, especially the uncomfortable ones, can help students recognise the complexity of history and community. By talking about these stories, rather than burying or ignoring them, we can model a commitment to justice and create the potential for healing.
Shaun Stephens | Montpelier, VT
Students and families deserve unvarnished truth and analysis of real history.
Laurel Lennon | Annapolis, MD
Arden ODonnell | Medfield, MA
April Marinell | Philadelphia, PA
I was taught that “honesty is the best policy”. I believe that ignoring truths and perspectives in our history is unconscionable.
Susan Groenke
we have to know our own and others' true histories if we are ever going to be a democratic country. We have to be willing to understand ourselves as racialized and learn how to talk about race so that we can all develop healthy racial identities and work toward racial conciliation and healing. Silencing teachers hurts us all!
Caitlin Sweetlamb | Austin, TX
Shavonne Joyner | Durham, NC
telling the truth will allow our country to heal and move forward.
Rafael Velazquez Cardenas , CA
I have a moral responsibility to teach the truth.
Myfanwy Lucca | Philadelphia, PA
We were taught lies as kids. It’s up to us to teach the truth about our history. No more whitewashing!
Catherine Arnold | Boston, MA
More accurate understandings regarding the legacy that we have all been handed and carry within us as people living in this country are integrally tied to young people becoming better future participants in our national community---participants who are able to engage with clear-eyed, more fulsome understandings of the experiences of our nation’s many diverse stakeholders and the many and diverse issues and needs that make up the fabric of relevant concerns that each of us must be equipped to address as constituents of this nation. These understandings are essential for students to be adequately prepared to advocate for a U.S. democracy that values truth and equality, and pursues liberty and justice for all.
Daniel Miller | West Roxbury, MA
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.