Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Stamo Karalazarides | Bayside, NYC, NY
If not now then when… if not us then who?
Stamo Karalazarides | Bayside, NYC, NY
Truth matters! Change starts with us. If not now, then when? If not us, then who? Thank you!
Jill Helland | Goodyear, AZ
We are morally and ethically responsible to teach our children and youth TRUTH! If we can’t learn from the past, we will continue to repeat the same terrible mistakes and atrocities-over and over again!
Depree Pounds | Bremerton, WA
As a an African American Christian Homeschooler, I purpose myself to teach history truthfully with intentionality of sharing wholly the atrocities and brutality of the many beautiful indigenous people groups and cultures that once lived throughout North and South America. I have come across many curricula ; making it's boast upon the Advancement of the American People, finding glory in Conquest;' minimizing the enslavement and genocide of Indigenous peoples. Dehumanizing them through cultural assimilation and religious oppression. Through teaching the truth, I have the opportunity to help my children understand our past and how racism not only affected them then but us today. We must keep the torch lit of knowledge and truth burning. I take the education of my children seriously. I take the sacrifice of my ancestors not in vain. The truth will prevail.
Allyson Knanishu | Davenport, IA
The truth will set you free.
Mary Cullen | Minneapolis, MN
The truth is our only way out of this. These students are the generation Crazy Horse prophesied about, we must guide them: “The red nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world: a world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations; a world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind with gather under the sacred tree of life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.”– Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse), Oglala Lakota Leader (1840-1877
Azure Kline | Baltimore, MD
I am a follower of Jesus and I believe that to follow Jesus is to recognize and confront the effects of sin both on an individual and institutional level. I believe that the pervasiveness of racism in our society is damaging for everyone. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to teach truth which has the power to bring freedom and healing.
Frances Gibson | Minneapolis, MN
My students deserve to hear the truth about history because their ancestors lived it and this is how we repair and progress as a country and community.
Nicole Smith | Framingham, MA
Apryl Lannigan | Baltimore, MD
I always have and always will teach the truth
Julie Bruey | Gig Harbor, WA
Katie Biester | Englewood, CO
As Lilla Watson says, "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."Because our children are too smart, too worthy, too full of promise to be lied to.
Sage Larson | Long Beach, CA
I feel I have a moral responsibility to teach students the truth about American history!
jacqueline waite johnson | Bronx, NY
I do not want to continue teaching the single narrative of America.
Amber Taylor | Laurel, MD
Arianne Whiting | Fairfield, CA
Our students deserve the truth!
Deborah Holihan | Ellicott City, MD
I will not lie to my students. History is true. It cannot be changed. We must learn and understand our past. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this AM to the “report a teacher” BS of VAs Youngkin. A man who won the governor’s office on anti CRT/history and now wants to report teachers who are teaching “divisive practices.” GTFO! History is history. You learn from it, not deny it. Not hide behind an acronym of CRT. It’s history. Period.
scott taylor | Leesburg, VA
Claritza Ortiz | Laurel, MD
It is time to empower our young people with the truth. We have inherited this and it is time to break generational ignorance. ~ Claritza Ortiz
Kristin Covey | Carnation, WA
We need to face and tell the WHOLE truth about our history; not just the parts that are comfortable for white people. This whole history needs to be taught in our schools.
Linda Yoki | Lafayette, IN
It is both embarrassing and abhorrent to me that members of a state legislative body would vote for censoring our United States history and banning points of view that may be different from their own. Among even the most esteemed historians, discussion and debate exists sometimes with no resolution and both parties agreeing to disagree. Students must have practice with these same skills to truly benefit from learning history in the first place. How can a legislature vote to ban curricula? Who are they to decide what is history and what is not? Rescinding these laws that ban scholarly American points of view on racism and sexism is the only rectifying act that should be undertaken by states whose assemblies have enacted them. Remember civil debate and discussion, negotiation, and compromise is how people of varied opinions settle issues!
Holly Flanagan | Swampscott, MA
Richard Gardella | Swampscott, MA
Though we can not "change history" we need to be cognizant of the "true facts" that we need to present and portray to our students to show our younger generation how things were, how things are now, and where we need to go in terms of discrimination, racial inequality, and the evolution of change. That hopefully has and will make us all appreciate our country and become better more informed nation...
Kaitlyn Thomas | Swampscott, MA
Erin Wilson | Swampscott, MA
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.