Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Rhonda Leopold | North Highlands, CA
History, correct and accurate history needs to be learned
Dan Oh | Santa Clara, CA
We teach about the darker aspects of our history not because we believe the country to be irredeemable as opponents charge, but because we along with our students can create the change to dismantle systemic oppression. Teaching a people's history that is honest fosters hope that we can fulfill the promise of America so everyone enjoys it regardless of who they are.
Erin Adams | Seattle, WA
I will not be a part of this institutional racism. I will not perpetuate the lies.
Ramona Becker | Wichita, KS
Our democracy is fragile.
Jana Giles | Monroe, LA
The truth will set us free.
Riann Sahnow | Broomfield, CO
The truth is important.
Maureen Canter | Schertz, TX
Truth is beautiful and everyone deserves it.
Kevin Guenzi | Lakewood, WA
Truth is easier to explain than lies are to defend.
Larissa Andersen UM
Jill Leet-Otley | Decorah, IA
The truth matters!
Marc Handelman | Brooklyn, NY
Lisa Ebel | Cambridge, MA
Tyler Wilch | Spokane, WA
Jenn Smitley | Marshall, IL
Elissa Algaba | Shingle Springs, CA
My students deserve to know the true history of the United States
Eric McGee | Killen, AL
Ignoring the truth doesn't make it disappear. If we ever hope to live up to the promises and proclamations of our Founding Documents, we must shine light on the good and the bad alike. The good will enable us to see the path we must trod, and the bad will enable us to quit roaming around aimlessly wondering why things never change.
Alyson Catalan | East Providence, RI
Dorothy Higuera | Yuma, AZ
I know for a fact we have not been teaching the true history of America. Those that oppose it are just putting out a false narrative, like they do with everything else. They have not full read or studied it. I pledge to teach our students the truth!
James Miller | Louisville, KY
Nicola Williams | Marina, CA
This is not a theory. The fact that people (Bhagat Singh Thind, Takao Ozawa) had cases heard by the Supreme Court about whether or not they were white proves that definitions on race have changed over time in our country’s history but have always mattered a great deal. Teaching students the truth empowers them. We should be careful not to teach a “white guilt version” of history, but to focus on the agency of people of every ethnicity under systems that certainly did oppress them. To deny the truth is not to teach; to re-structure the historical narrative for our own convenience is the work of less democratic, less freedom-loving countries than our own. It is unconscionable that states are banning this.
Maile Anderson | Seattle, WA
As a college graduate, it’s important that those students in early education know the truth about American history, they aren’t told lies about how this whole system was built.
Erin Boyce | Aurora, CO
Without teaching the truth, we are allowing history to repeat itself and worst of all, not providing our students the opportunity to analyze history and think critically on their own
Patricia Sales | Leander, TX
Students deserve an education that that is honest and prepares them for the world after grade school. Students cannot develop critical thinking skills if we hide and cherry pick information for them.
Jane Gottfried | Saint Paul, MN
Alana Harte | Williamstown, 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.