Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Jenny Padgett | Cupertino, CA
Caryl Crowell | Tucson, AZ
even though I am no longer a classroom teacher, I still volunteer in classrooms and work with teachers through professional development. I pledge that the books I share with children, and the learning experiences I promote and use to engage teachers and students will be representative of the histories of ALL the people in the room.
James Zartler | Portland, OR
Chris Padgett | Sacramento, CA
Teaching lies about the past keeps us sick, and the only way we get healthy is by truthful diagnosis of our past.
Anna Grizzard | Round Rock, TX
I believe educators should teach the truth.
Starla Dawngmastar12@y | Phoenix, AZ
All people no matter their but especially children deserve to know our history and they deserve the opportunity to discuss what they hear and learn also. You can not outlaw history that already has been lived by so many.
Marisa Gomez | San Rafael, CA
Brandon backhaus | Pasadena, CA
Decolonizing the classroom is an important step to teaching the truth. It is the opposite of seditious, traitorous, or cowardly. It is the most patriotic thing an educator can do is to reject the white supremacy that ignores the lessons we can learn from our past misdeed, lessons that will make us a stronger, more adaptable, just, united nation.
Patsy Spendlove | Marshall, TX
The truth matters, liking the truth is irrelevant.
Liz Willis | Paoli, PA
It is my responsibility as an American historian, educator, and school leader to ensure that students are told the truth about human experience in all of its complexity, to effectively prepare them to engage with the world.
Zoe Harris | Stamford, CT
I believe in empowering my students through relating to their culture, identity, and experiences. My role as a teacher is not to only teach them music, but teach them about how to be a good person, develop relationship with others, and make good decisions. Critical race theory, if taught right, should be a way to empower students and help them think critically about situations they find themselves in.
Kara Applegate | Kalamazoo, MI
Education is the backbone of our lives, we need education that is accurate and empowering. How we can change people is through education.
Dana Rodriguez | Sugar Land, TX
MELANIE SHEDD | Chesterfield, MO
students need to understand their role in society and what systems are in place that benefit some and restrict others, even if unintentionally. We need to learn from our past to move forward.
Jean Gregorek | Buffalo, NY
Erica Rodriguez | New Port Richey, FL
Facts matter. Our history is not up for grabs to the highest bidder of democratic destruction!
Christine Den Adel | Edmonds, WA
We have to teach truth!
Nancy Patterson | Bowling Green, OH
I know that democracy can thrive and needs fresh air and ideas in which to do so.
Gretchen Kapperman | Milwaukee, WI
My students deserve to learn the truth about the history and the current structures of the United States.
Rick Jackson | Cascade Twp, MI
I am pledging to teach a full understanding of history that includes the difficult topics and how they still reverberate today.
Kelly Wright | Mesa, AZ
Yvonne Unrau | Kalamazoo, MI
It's essential to teach from facts and to support meaningful conversation about difficulty topics to support connection and shared humanity.
Jessica Cuello | Syracuse, NY
Melissa Snider | Huntsville, AL
Learning about racism is the only path to healing it and building a better, stronger nation.
Paul Thomas | Greenville, SC
Academic freedom and truth are essential for a free and equitable society
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.