Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
María Teresa Harris | San Diego, CA
If I am not truthful with my students I am disrespecting them. I will not do that. I
Dabney Rigby | Austin, TX
Teaching CRT is a no brainer, and in no way more potentially harmful than carrying on without it. It is a long overdue reckoning, and it is what we OWE to current and future generations, as it will very likely begin a foundational awakening and restructuring of the realities of racism within the hearts of individuals, which, as James Baldwin and so many others taught us, is where it is needed the most in order to help steer this country and the world towards a more fair and equitable, as well as safe society.
Kelly Benedetti | Tampa, FL
Facing and grappling with the racism, sexism, and other oppressive worldviews that got baked into enduring policy outcomes is vital for the pursuit of the equality our country purports to bestow.
Alison Sullivan | Traverse City, MI
my students deserve the truth. As Ibram Kendi says, if we love our country, we need to be honest about what it is.
Raquel de Hoyos | San Diego, CA
The truth is the only way to explain our present. Black people deserve better. By understanding our county’s true history we can begin to understand how to better accomplish this.
Wendy Eccles | Rancho Cucamonga, CA
As a US History teacher it is unconscionable that politicians and history deniers are trying to stifle the people’s history, the good, the bad, AND the ugly, in favor of a whitewashed, incomplete, and incorrect account of our past.
Karyn Young | Woodland, CA
I believe in an open, honest, truthful, developmentally appropriate presentation of history, with the goal of developing important critical thinking skills and social conscience.
Meghan Schimmel | Fresno, CA
History taught from all perspectives matters.
Gwendolyn Rogers | Providence, RI
We should not be teachers if we are looking to halt progress for ourselves the world around us.
Shelly Ehrke | Santa Monica, CA
Arianna Barzman-Grennan | Elk Grove, CA
It matters that we teach our students accurate information. Without the truth, we cannot hope to have a more informed, knowledgeable population of students and citizens.
Ruth Luevanos | Simi Valley, CA
I refuse to teach lies to students .
Shari Tarbet | Albuquerque, NM
It is imperative that we all know the kaleidoscope of history.
Diana Gonzalez | Anaheim, CA
Jane Silva | Vista, CA
We need to teach the truth about our history, so we can learn from it. #STEAM #SEL
Anna Castillo | Watsonville, CA
the truth is the only thing that should be taught in schools.
Susie Merrick | South Burlington, VT
As an educator, I have a moral obligation to know, understand, and teach truth-centered history. I am especially passionate about this since I grew up at a time when history was not taught in an accurate, truthful way. As a result, I continue to unlearn what I learned in my own public school in order to re-learn an accurate truth.
John Breen | Chicago, IL
I refuse to whitewash history
Sandra Camp | San Francisco, CA
Teaching accurate history is the only way to ensure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes.
Nicole Hsu | San Francisco, CA
We must stand up and fight to expose the truth—always!
Deborah Riddle | Chicago, IL
If children don't learn their history, they're destined to repeat it. Also, we learn about Crispus Attics, Ben Franklin, Christopher Columbus etc., why not OUR truth?????
Adam Geisler | Chicago, IL
we must defend the importance of truth and justice.
beth Bartolini-Salimbeni | Corrales, NM
We strive to teach the difference between fact and opinion; how does one do that by ignoring "what happened?" . . . Or, perhaps Napoleon got it right when he said that "history is a set of lies agreed upon."
Jennifer Becker | Grand Rapids, MI
Yolonda Kelsor | Cincinnati, OH
A people who do not know their history are lost! As a lifelong learner, I was taught to be a critical thinker and I don’t want this opportunity taken from generations to come. I am a retired educator and my mother was also an educator and a retired librarian. I want all children and young people, especially those who look like me are of an Indigenous background to know the struggles we faced and decide on ways to make the future better.
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.