Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Macquin Brockington | Mattapan, MA
I stand for truth and justice. I refuse to lie about history and systems that have ramifications today.
Susannah Livingston | Little Rock, AR
Knowledge is never neutral, and education is deterministic
Cheryl Hart | Westbrook, ME
We must hear all the voices of all the people who lived, or are living, as our country's story continues to unfold. Examining, questioning, and understanding our history as fully as possible - the noble and the shameful, the bitter arguments and hard-won agreements, the creativity and innovation, exclusion, racism, violence, courage, hate, peace, corruption, activism, fear, compassion - will help us learn, grow, and thrive as a people and mature as a society. This work can be at once messy and uplifting, hard, contentious, and exhilarating. But it can't be ignored because it's difficult or because facing hard truths is damned uncomfortable - not if we're serious about realizing the aspirations we claim to have about living in a a just and inclusive country. The proposed bans on what's been labeled "critical race theory" are yet another attempt to avoid the truth, and a search for the truth, about our history as a people, as a country. Why so much fear of truth-seeking? This isn't a zero-sum game. As challenging as it most definitely can be, we're all lifted by facing the truth and working honestly to understand care about one another. This is how we move forward, how we metabolize conflict and trauma and use that energy to help us grow. Shifting the study of history in schools to reflect a fuller telling of our country's story can be done with sensitivity and respect for students' developmental ages, stages, and readiness. Isn't it quintessentially "American" to ask questions and to seek the truth? When did this process become "indoctrination?" Quite simply, it isn't. It's our job, as educators, to help our students learn to think for themselves, not to tell them what to think. Their learning, their understanding, and their development as active, engaged, informed citizens, is supported when we look for truth - not when we settle for lies designed to keep us comfortable and to perpetuate a fragmented, underdeveloped, and incomplete narrative.
Cheryl Lindstrom | Ocala, FL
Kimberly Boland | Pittsfield, MA
Ebony Murph | Far Rockaway, NY
I have signed an oath as an educator to teach the truth and will continue to do so, despite lawmakers’ attempts to thwart the truth. Knowledge and critical thinking are the most significant parts of a student’s education, and I will not jeopardize the future of our country by providing misinformation to young people who look to us as role models. Legislators have absolutely no right to implement said laws because doing so would be unconstitutional, and lawmakers need to uphold the Constitution at all costs. I will do everything in my power to continue educating our youth about racial discrimination, social injustices, systemic inequality, etc so that we keep moving towards a hate-free world.
Arisa Hiroi | San Francisco, CA
Forcible omission of truth for the sake of propaganda goes against the values of democracy we supposedly preach as a country. Students need to know all sides.
Maureen Sullivan | San Francisco, CA
Our students deserve to learn about their history and this country's history.
Paula Annicchiarico | San Diego, CA
History is truth. Facts are truth. It's important to know the truth so we can learn from it to build a more perfect Union. White Supremacy does not want Democracy For The People. White-washing the truth will never help this world.
Lisa Hiltbrand | Oakland, CA
Hannah Lippstreuer | Milwaukee, WI
Especially as a history teacher, I'd rather be fired than lie to young adults about the reality of the past and present. They deserve to know the ENTIRE narrative of the U.S. from all perspectives.
Lynn Wolf | Chelsea, MI
As a retired teacher, I am still connected to children in many ways. Just because I am no longer in the classroom, does not mean that I ignore the truth that education should provide.
Margaret Egler | San Diego, CA
History needs to tell the full story of our attempts and our failures to create a multi racial democracy.
Susan Katz | Berkeley, CA
I believe strongly in telling the truth about race and racism.
Anne Carey | Newton, MA
I am committed to helping young people understand how our country developed and how they can contribute to building a just and equitable society today. Being honest matters.
Sharon Lanza | West Hartford, CT
I believe in justice. All Americans must be included in our teaching of history, not a white-centered, polished half-history. History must include mistakes (so we do better) as well as victories, in order to understand where we are in present day and where we will go in the future.
Michelle McElwaine | Hull, MA
Our children need to know the gruesome history of enslavement and colonialism to understand the harm that has been done to Black and Indigenous peoples. This is our only hope for a future in which freedom, justice, joy, and the natural world unseat whiteness and reign supreme. "Until we are all free, we are none of us free." -Emma Lazarus
Jennifer Bennifield | Union City, GA
History is not history unless every truth is revealed. No matter how painful that truth may be.
Anna O’Brien
learning hard history and the impact of slavery, the failed Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the resultant, persistent inequalities are imperative topics in our collective American story . If we aim to continue to form a “more perfect union”, there is no other way forward than to take an open-eyed, honest look at this. I can’t teach any other way.
Hinda Joy Laury | Bellmead
TRUTH has always needed to be taught. Ignorance is disastrous. If the majority acknowledges the truth, many more will come forward to demand change to this white supremacist oligarchy we fight for survival in. We should stand tall together. As a teacher, I have refused to teach their lies.
Sam Jordan | Palmer, AK
Arielle Nagle | San Francisco, CA
We can’t keep lying. The truth will set us free.
Stephanie Collins | Chicago, IL
Jenny Davis | Rosemount, MN
our students deserve to learn the truth about structural and systematic racism.
Sara Townsend | Rio Linda, CA
We can’t move forward as a country until we teach the truths of our history.
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.