Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
John Maloy | Owasso, OK
I believe it is critical to the future of America to teach the unvarnished truth about our past.
Brian Delgado | San Diego, CA
In some sense education of our youth is societal creation, and we must teach historical truth if we ever hope to have a chance at healing past injustices.
Jeannee Turner | Chicago, IL
To not learn the truths of our history is dangerous. To not know what is happening in the world is choosing blindness. Knowing America’s true history reveals our strengths to build on and our faults to not commit again.
Darlene Cameron | New York City , NY
Critical Race Theory is accurate
Gary Kidd | Commerce City, CO
We must learn about our past so we can shape our future.
Nina Abelson | Washington, DC
Not only do students need and deserve to know the negative history and, especially, present events in our country, lawmakers dictating what CAN and CANNOT be taught is a tilt away from a diplomatic nation.
Laurie Walsh | Bend, OR
With truth, there can be reconciliation and a path forward for ALL of our citizens.
Livia Simmons | Atlanta, GA
Teach the TRUTH.
Jennifer Vacca | Grafton, MA
Our teaching should not be predicated on a need to make the dominant culture comfortable at the expense of everyone else.
Jill Vanoverbeke | Cheyenne, WY
Restrictions against teaching historic facts are anti-education.
Jennifer Choate | Abbeville, LA
I am concerned about the whitewashing of our country’s history. We must acknowledge the good AND the bad of our past. Only through 109% transparency can we deal with the underlying evil of racism and take steps to eradicate it once and for all.
Alicia Messing | Phoenix, AZ
it is time that we make changes to how our country understands its past and to work towards ending racism in Ameria.
Kathy Hanson | Annapolis, MD
It is my job to educate responsible citizens to uphold our democracy and that includes teaching history as it happened not as it was written by old white men and current events in true context. It includes teaching against racism, sexism, and any kind of oppression against others. It not me, then who will.
Stacy Swenck | Murrieta, CA
I see the pain my students suffer because of racism and bigotry in their community. They don’t feel safe. My silence makes it worse.
Meggan Jordan | Modesto, CA
Sanitized history sucks but putting it into law is even worse
Tim Hargesheimer | Louisville, KY
Tiffany Taylor | Kent, OH
Teaching the truth about past and present inequalities is teaching the truth. And we cannot lessen inequality in the future if we do not learn from the past and present.
Aimee Trier | West Palm Beach, FL
I believe we need to teach the whole truth - no matter how uncomfortable- so that we don’t make the same mistakes again!!!!!
Jeri Bond Whatley | Philadelphia, PA
It is vital that we teach the truth about our country's history because it is vital that our young people learn it, know it, and act to correct systems that hinder our growth and prosperity as individuals of every race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation; hinder our growth and prosperity as citizens; and hinder our growth and prosperity as a country. To acknowledge the harms of the past is to avoid repeating them in the future. To acknowledge the achievements of past is to highlight and celebrate them now and in the future. Our children deserve to know our true history, not whitewashed or selective history. These are our truths and we must not hide or ignore them. To do so will lead to our downfall.
Mary Twellmann | Vienna, VA
The history of racism, sexism, and oppression of Native Peoples is this history of America as well as the story of exploration and the Immigrant experience. History is complicated and unfolding as we gain new insides into our past. I love this country and I refuse to whitewash it’s history. America is not about limiting its history to one perspective. Our strength lies in our striving to do better and be better.
Donna Cywinski | Fredericksburg, VA
I cannot allow the truth to be regulated by legislators who have an ideological agenda. I teach history and it is imperative that we teach the history of all Americans. That includes the history of slavery, white supremacy, misogyny and anti-immigrant policies. Structural racism continues to be a barrier to realizing equality. Students should be able to learn the truth- not some made up fairy tale about white protestants triumphantly marching across North America bringing Christianity and civilization.
Mike Lewis | Columbia, MD
Teachers have the right to create curriculum appropriate for their students. Teachers are professionals and have been trained to do this. For the State to dictate to teachers how to teach and what to teach sounds like a Stalinist approach to education. If the teacher's can't be creative to teach the students what they need, how will the students be creative to provide the solutions to the problems they will encounter in their lives
Stephen Werner | Saint Louis, MO
The future of America is in the hands of good teachers who are free to speak the truth!
Jennifer Little | Rochester, NY
The curriculum in its entirety is incomplete and does not educate students about the actual US history of structural racism in the US beginning with the European colonization. Marginalized people are also still underrepresented in all aspects of current US k-12 curriculum across all subjects.
Tim Martindell | Houston, TX
I believe in academic freedom and that the truth of our collective history is key to continuing the democratic traditions of our country.
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.