Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Ruby Pena | Red Oak, TX
We need to teach the truth
Denise Leonard | Tujunga, CA
Students deserve to understand all people’s history—and their place within it.
Gina Sorrentino | Germantown, MD
Vincent Sepe | Fountain Hills, AZ
Now, more than ever, the truth matters.
Laura Markley | Orlando, FL
Kids deserve to know that part of loving America is learning about the uncomfortable and sad parts of her history. When we give students historically accurate facts and allow them to look critically at where we could have done better, it creates civics-minded and socially-just students who want to create a more fair and just America for all.
Lisa M. Sparaco | San Diego, CA
We need teachers prepared to serve our diverse communities for a more inclusive, democratic society!
Jessie Kingston | Providence, RI
Attempts to suppress long overdue teaching about the history of systemic racism are an overt racist act that must be countered by any means possible. Learning more about a topic is always helpful in counteracting prejudice and fear born of ignorance of the facts.
Ellie Friedman | Orchard Lake Village, MI
I am a pre-service teacher, and I (will) teach the truth because I believe in the liberation of all people, because I understand education as a tool for social change, and because I believe all identities should be represented and affirmed.
Olivia Jones | Philadelphia, PA
I refuse to lie to children in order to strengthen the hold of white supremacy on our society.
Vickey Bolling | Marietta, GA
I am a biracial woman Who has experienced firsthand the problem in our society pertains to race and gender. My family has and continues to struggle do to being part black and part white. I’m signing this petition because we need to answer questions not heard from them. We need to teach people to be critically thinkers-to ask questions and explore what they encounter.
Jessica Janicki | Lynnwood, WA
The ten year olds in my classroom deserve to know that every story, including history, is told from someone's point of view.
Sean Freeland | Morgantown, WV
Teaching the truth is essential to liberate the lives of minoritized people, and it is especially important and rare in mathematics education.
Adriana Robledo | Sarasota, FL
Julia Ratchford | Chula Vista, CA
Teaching the truth matters. Lying to students teaches them that we are lying about the past.
Nicole Genua | New York, NY
I am an educator and my students deserve the truth.
Christopher Kozina | Bainbridge Island, WA
The skills and lessons of history are a tool that can be used to help us do our jobs as citizens and bring about the society we want to be a part of (or build toward for those who come after us). Just like any tool can be used as a weapon, the stories we tell ourselves of the past can be used in the same way. I want to help students have tools to use so that they too can be good ancestors going forward and exercise their power as citizens to bring about the society that they wish to live in.
Harriet Wingard | Portland, OR
Adrienne Westlake | Hydes, MD
My students deserve a well-rounded education. They must be informed of the messy underbelly of our country's history and its ties to current events as they become the citizens of tomorrow.
Lashawn Jenkins | Killeen, TX
I believe children should be given the knowledge of U.S history regardless if it does not fit the narrative of others.
Maryann Fox | Bellmead, TX
We always need to tell the truth. Always. Who will trust us if we dont tell the truth. I am embarrassed about how the last adm lied daily.
Stacy Stuehrenberg | Mountlake Terrace, WA
Ed Dorgan | Storrs Mansfield, CT
It is critical to get the truth out to today's students.
Karen Jones | Raleigh, NC
Ashleigh Elder | Jackson, MS
Rene Antrop-Gonzalez | New Paltz, NY
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.