Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Anna Gustafson | El Cerrito, CA
To understand how we got here and what we as a nation need to do to go forward, we need, and our students need, to understand what has happened in the past. It is patriotic to learn true history and how our country can be better
Sarah Khan | Everett, WA
Kelsey Rust | Spokane, WA
We must teach our children how things actually happened in the past if we want them to do better in the future.
Michelle Urrea | Seattle, WA
our stories matter too. You can’t continue to traumatize us and white wash us. We deserve to exist in spaces holistically and demand that.
Terri Hewitt | Bellmead, TX
all our students deserve to know the truth!
Laura Lehni | Seattle, WA
Not teaching the truth is LYING. Students deserve the truth and deserve a teacher who is honest with them and leads by example!
Eva Tang | Mountain View, CA
Magaly Juarez Jaimes | Stockton, CA
When we personally reflect on our past actions we are better equipped to make better decisions in the future. If we apply that as a collective society, we will be able to learn from the past mistakes (and triumphs) and build a better, equitable, just world for future generations.We can only truly reflect and move forward when we reach into our genuine core.
Erik Peterson | Mckinleyville, CA
I believe education is meant to open doors not close them.
Katherine Martinez | Elmhurst, NY
Shelly Wong | Woodhaven, NY
Maria Plochocki | Jersey City, NJ
Without being honest about the past and present, we can't build a better future. Our students deserve to know the truth so that they can make up their own minds.
Mary Jane Else | South Hadley, MA
Our students deserve a good education, and that means that teachers are responsible for helping the gain the skills they need to decide what is true.
Jess Eaton
it is my responsibility to provide my students with critical thinking skills and accurate historical information.
Brigette Bloomfield | Joliet, IL
I’m supporting my school district’s commitment to educating our teachers and staff on the topics of white privilege, implicit bias and the systemic historical racism we have seen in the United States for centuries. We want our brothers and sisters of color to know that we seek to understand and that we believe knowledge is power. It is my belief this will open up honest conversations in the classroom as we acknowledge the hateful injustices that have occurred for centuries. (Which were glossed over in textbooks for as long as I can remember.)
Caroline Ludlow | Cali, CO
Power to the truth, power to empathy, power to the children.
Meghan LeRoux | Colorado Springs, CO
It is important that students know the truth about our nation's history and understand the many perspectives from our history.
Nicole Braun | Chicago, IL
Vivian Jablonski | Durham, NH
Students deserve to know the truth! We have a responsibility to teach them the facts so they can come to their own logical conclusions.
Kari Hoose
Students - and our country - deserve accurate, respectful history and social studies information.
Colleen Kyle | Baltimore, MD
My job is to teach young Americans the truth and I will it stop.
Denise Romero | Wayne, NJ
Amanda Lieber | Mount Laurel, NJ
I believe in America, and I believe the truth matters. And to move this country forward, it is time to tell the entire story of this land that we call the United States.
Rachel Bellande | Joá, BR
I teach for change, for my students, and not for racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist jerk-alerts who are only obsessed with keeping their power at any means.
Robert Peate | Portland, OR
The United States were founded on genocide, slavery, racism, and oppression. Institutional racism is a glaringly obvious and defining characteristic of our society today. I will not lie to my students, no matter who wishes me to do so.
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.