Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
MR Russo | Pompano Beach, FL
Pushing back on fascism, and promoting truth to students!
Janice Vitullo | Youngstown, OH
Amy Spies | Port Orange, FL
Our nation’s true story must be told. We cannot hide from the truth. We can only heal and move forward when ALL voices have been heard and stories shared.
Dominique Akpore | Fort Madison, IA
I refuse to lie to my students about US History. Iowa has passed a law banning the truth and I can't stand for it.
Rob Spivey | Sykesville, MD
I believe in the collective and individual value of strong social science education and that includes teaching students to engage in challenging conversations about our past and present.
Rahman Culver | Silver Spring , MD
those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.
Andrea Trivax | West Bloomfield Twp, MI
I believe in teaching the truth and acknowledging the fact of institutional racism in the United States.
Rudolph Ware | Goleta, CA
The truth shall set us free, lies have always enslaved us.
James Horn | Nashville, TN
The history of the United States should not be sanitized to spare the feelings of white supremacists who would prefer to deny the incontrovertible events of the past which continue to shape the present. The fact is that another generation of legislators have chosen to use their institutional prerogative to pass more censorious laws aimed to subvert the truth demonstrates us that critical race theory is not a theory at all but, rather, an undeniable fact derived by living in a nation whose vast wealth was built on the backs of slaves.
Michelle Frye | Cedar Rapids, IA
I care about students - and they deserve to know the truth. They are able to handle uncomfortable realities and are engaged in these discussions - even if the governing bodies in this state are not.
David Nitchman | West Newbury, MA
Jethroe Moore | San Jose, CA
Heather Williams | Fort Myers, FL
Teaching the truth is paramount to preserving democracy. The way to a more just society is through education. Ignorance ultimately leads to corruption in government and violence in it's people.
Peter Robinson | Cincinnati, OH
The very existence of this country and its ideals, founded on enlightened principles that liberty cannot exist without the free pursuit of truth, is in peril by this censorship.
Emily Rosaso | Germantown, MD
It’s time to stop whitewashing history.
Sarah Bustin | Lowell, MA
Students deserve to know the truth. The only way this country will end racism is by educating all of its people.
Cara Brackins | Asheville, NC
The truth matters
Shae Savoy | Baltimore, MD
Eirka Siemsen | Milwaukee, WI
Nicole Gasparini | Rockford, IL
Educators will not go backwards
Alice Shea
Our students deserve the truth. We must decolonize education.
Melinda Bowers | Golden, CO
It is important to teach history, the good and the bad, to understand how our past has created our present.
Laura Wilkinson | Richmond, VA
I believe that if we continue to whitewash the events of the past, we are doomed to repeat them. Haven't we seen the damage of not learning from our past already?
Carl Ackerman | Narberth, PA
Jon Van Camp | Hyattsville, MD
Teaching about race, the origins of race, and the nature of racism is not only key to understanding history, it’s key to understanding our world today. The efforts by governments to restrict the teaching of race can only be a detriment to our students and can only serve to reinforce white supremacy.
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.