Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Josephine Valentine | Harrisonburg, VA
I am committed to teaching social justice and making schools a safe place for all of my students. I see it as a responsibility to teach students the truth so that they learn empathy at an early age and use their critical thinking skills to create a more just world. Without knowing the truth, students can’t know how to move forward in fairness.
Angela Thomas | Chandler, AZ
Michele Murphy | Falls Church, VA
The truth of our history is complex and needs to be voiced, examined and discussed so that we can evolve into a more just and democratic nation.
Rebecca Funk | Silver Spring, MD
Christina Jameson | Mesa, AZ
Michelle Wilson-Banks | Kalamazoo, MI
Everyone deserves to know the TRUTH of the history of the United States and beyond. It only breeds "isms" and entitlement when facts are kept out.
Heidi Schmittel | San Jose, CA
it is my job to teach my students what has actually happened in the past; not some version of the truth that glosses over reality just to try and make white people feel better about where we came from. So many of the painful events of the past are directly impacting the present and until we acknowledge and attempt to come to grips with the truth, true racial equality will never happen and people will continue to suffer. We must teach the truth if we are ever going to heal our nation.
Jerald Goo | Seattle, WA
To understand race in America today, you have to understand our nation's history. To understand our nation's history, you have to discuss race.
Ashley Kiddle | Chicago, IL
Michele Steriti | Cherry Hill, NJ
As a parent and an educator I am committed to learning more than I was taught because I have an obligation to every child in my care to help them grow in wisdom, understanding, empathy, and compassion. It is a devastating shame to not learn from the mistakes of our past.
Peter Mullins | Orange, CA
Michael Sova | San Francisco, CA
Further progress cannot be made when thoughtful, nuanced and critical though and discussions are prohibited.
Danah Opland-Dobs | Milwaukee, WI
Renee Sumner | Blue Springs, MO
I sign because if we don’t know our history we are doomed to repeat it.
Lindsay Vanderbeek | Mountain View, CA
Teaching the truth about our country’s past is an important part of shaping our future.
Amberlynn Lane | Vancouver, WA
We are teaching about race either way, intentionally or not. I choose truth about our past with hope for a better future.
Nisha Sensharma | Falls Church, VA
An educated and engaged citizenry is critical to a democracy. Free and public discourse about issues that affect our lives is impossible without ACCURATE information about the diverse experiences and actions of ALL the people in our country's past and present.
Steve Munczek | Mesa, AZ
No American student should be kept from knowing the truth about this country and its foundation and development, regardless of whether the truth is ugly or not. By knowing what has occurred in the past to our fellow citizens, today's and tomorrow's students will learn how to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Kristen Tahour | Jefferson City, MO
We need to teach the truth, not just the victors’ propaganda and indoctrination.
Joanne Walters | Portage, MI
It is essential that accurate facts are reported regarding history.
Christopher Wingett | Athens, OH
I am not a bad person.
Lawrence Hashima | La Mirada, CA
My job is to teach students how to analyze history, not to conceal facts from them.
Violeta Duran | Redondo Beach, CA
Students deserve the truth.
Michelle Rhodes | Maplewood, NJ
The truth matters.
Shannon Headley | Brighton, MI
I am afraid for our democracy, and legislation banning something that is not even taught, is VERY DANGEROUS!!! Democracy is being threatened and I am on the front lines daily. Students have access to all information online, so by manipulating our teaching, they hope to continue White Supremacy, and BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!
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.