Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Shelley Park | Orlando, FL
In a democracy, politicians don't interfere with educational curricula. Students deserve real education and not censored versions of a people's history.
Lara Knight | Houston, TX
It is important to teach the truth. It is important to teach all children that they have value.
Angela Iovine | Philadelphia, PA
We must tell our students the truth!
Brenna McLaughlin | Brooklyn, NY
Brenna McLaughlin | Brooklyn, NY
I am committed to the un whitewashing of history in American.
Jill Hanson | Atlanta, GA
Amanda Deter | Birmingham, AL
We already are committed to teaching true, difficult, inclusive history that honors all the students in the classroom and ones that aren’t represented in our small school. I believe that our society will change as we give every student access to true history. Our students become witnesses to history and will grow into magnanimous citizens, activists, educators!
Kare Mercurio | Rumford, RI
A more just society requires that we look at our history honestly. We need to teach our students how to listen to stories that are different than their own and build empathy. As a parent, I do not ignore my child’s past experiences. I use them to help my child grow and create positive change.
Yaasiyn Muhammad | Elkins Park, PA
A people without a knowledge of their past is like a tree without roots.
Ali Haverty | Harrisonburg, VA
My job as an educator is to guide students in practice of their critical thinking skills. To ask questions which build understanding of the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the past, the present, and the future. I refuse to ignore that/those which/who has/have been systematically erased and ignored in this practice.
Martha Lawson | Liverpool, NY
all of my students deserve to be represented in the history of our country. They deserve to have role models of persistence, determination and success. We do not learn from knowing one side of anything. We learn from mistakes. We learn from struggle. We learn from differences. We as teachers, as citizens, as humans are called to do better. We cannot do better by ignoring the history of half the population. We owe it to our students, our neighbors and our country to do everything in our power to ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Susan Warrow | Oakland County, MI
I was in college in the 1980s when I learned the lies I was taught about Columbus and Native Americans. That's when I decided to be a teacher who teaches the truth, and I have been now for over 20 years.
Rebecca McAllister | West Chester, PA
An educated student is one who can think critically about current events. One who will not be fooled into thinking these events are new. And one who will know that they can make change and have a positive impact. Educated students will educate others, recognizing bigotry in systems and individuals. I stand with Zinn Education Project in this mission.
Adam Keller | Athens, AL
If the truth appears biased, perhaps that's your problem and the problem of the misinformation you're consuming? Young people deserve to know the good, the bad, and the ugly of our past in order to understand the present and improve the future.
Annie LovettHall | Philadelphia, PA
We need the truth
Charis Sharp | D.C.
It’s important
Deron Albright | Havertown, PA
"...[Man] is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal. He is not essentially, but becomes through his history, a teller of stories that aspire to truth. But the key question for men is not about their own authorship; I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’" - Alasdair MacIntyre
Janet Turner | Decatur, GA
my job as an educator is to shine a light that helps students see the world in which we live, not to hide uncomfortable truths with silence.
Michele Blumberg | Encinitas, CA
I have used Zinn history with my students for years. It is important to tell the truth.
Whitney Howarth | Concord, NH
Without the freedom to teach the truth, face our history and understand the most troubling parts of our past, we can not move forward, heal, repair and bring justice to all.
Nicole Steverson | Tucker, GA
Telling the truth about American history helps free them from oppressive systems.
Taylor Stoermer | Providence, RI
I stand with others for truth and honesty in teaching about our past absent nationalist mythology. That’s how we strengthen and celebrate diverse communities, by tackling how we all got here.
Marcus Logan | Covington, GA
Our students deserve the truth.
Leigh Yakubowski | Bronx, NY
Andrew Haglin | Brooklyn, NY
I believe students need to know the true history of our country if we hope to ever hope to address the prejudices and structural inequalities that persist to this day.
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.