Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Parker Brown-Nesbit | Summerville , SC
I believe that everyone should know history, both the good and the bad.
Jennifer Jones | Eureka, CA
I believe kids can handle the truth.
Jeff Walker | Charlestown, NH
Public schools and public libraries are the cornerstones of a functioning democracy. Attempting to censor either goes against everything our country was founded on.
Deborah Schmidt | Saint Louis, MO
Nataliya Braginsky | New Haven, CT
We have seen this kind of authoritarianism before, and we must send a loud and clear message that we are organized and we will resist!
Jennifer Welch | Passaic, NJ
Corey Brothers | New York, NY
We need to know and understand our past in order to create a better future.
Adam Farris | Houston, TX
Like Malcolm X, I’m for truth.
Jim Hodges | Ithaca, NY
Middle School students are poised in their development to take their youthful concrete thinking toward more discerning, analytical abstraction. I'm committed to supporting their growth by providing them a wide range of information, media and the critical thinking tools to make sense of their historical moment and see themselves as active agents in the world. A few years away from their right to vote, we need to have them step into their democratic roles, knowledgeable about the nation's history and workings of government, and the habits of mind to be able to question, research, dig and gather to understand fact from fiction.
Deborah A Velto | Springfield, VT
The truth matters. Kids cannot develop empathy without it.
Roger Tuller | Kingsville, TX
Although the current restrictive statutes apply to K-12 educators, the Lieutenent Governor of Texas has already announced his intentions to introduce similar measures for higher education in the next legislative session. ALL educators must stand together and resist these Neo-Fascist attempts to "white"wash our history. I join my colleagues in standing up for open and honest presentaions of the past.
Susan Johnson | Sarasota, FL
All kids deserve to be told the truth, especially history. When we lie kids know
Chris Cerrone | Springville, NY
Our students deserve to learn more than history that has literally been whitewashed.
Michael Stewart | Milton, MA
These bills prevent teachers from teaching the truth to students and no teacher should be governed by fear. The key to a successful classroom is honest communication and open, respectful dialogue.
Barry McCann | Cheyenne, WY
In order to assist our students to become active, engaged, and critical citizens they need hard hard, truthful history.
Savanna Jamerson | Edmonds, WA
I am disgusted by lies.
Donna Kimelman | Beaufort, SC
Jack Brestel | Silverthorne, CO
I did my best teaching the truth for 42 years. I encourage all teachers to continue teaching the truth. I don’t know how many times I had parents complain about my use of A People’s History of the United States. I used it as my primary source.
Simin Minou | New York, NY
Professor and author Angela Davis said: "We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society." We can achieve this by providing children of all ages with an education system that teaches students to think critically, that provides them with media literacy skills, and that includes a history that embraces multiple voices and perspectives, and visions.
Richard Cohen | Sacramento, CA
It is way past time to change the education paradigm from punishments & rewards to kindness and understanding . This can not happen without teaching the truth. Speak the truth and the truth shall set you free,
Sally Myles | Reseda, CA
To teach less than the full truth about history -- to omit facts and perspectives and legacies -- is to teach lies -- both lies of commission and lies of omission. Education must be the whole story -- composed of the good and the bad and all the many shades of both in between. For it to be less is propaganda, indoctrination and thought manipulation. We all need to be critical thinkers who question and learn more and question again. And most importantly, we MUST teach through an inclusive social justice lens if we are to right wrongs and provide the collective voice to fulfill the great promise this country.
Lawrence Shin | Watsonville, CA
I didn't become a history teacher to hide the truth from my students so as to make a particular group of people feel comfortable. Truth is bigger than any fear. I will not work to make my students dumber and less aware. Total contradiction of why I went into the profession. Those who try to stop us are full of BS.
Beth Levin | Portland, OR
Dana Powell Russell, Ed.D. | Santa Cruz, CA
I believe that, in order to create a just and sustainable world, all our understandings and actions must be framed through the dual lenses of social and environmental justice. I am passionate and intentional about this interdisciplinary approach. It is my responsibility as an educator to engage my service learning and teacher education students in critical conversations and relevant learning experiences that move them to pursue life with a holistic sense of social and environmental knowledge, empathy, urgency, and agency.
Seamus Pender | Rindge, NH
I belive in the truth!
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.