Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Rachael Collins | Huntington Beach, CA
I believe that education is about discovering the truth, not covering it up. College teachers and K-12 need to work together.
Cynthia Kraus | Kansas City, MO
The children of this country deserve to know the truth about the country they inhabit. It was not until I turned 18 that I learned about the atrocities of oppression that have occurred in our country over the last 500+ years. Getting the full story in school will allow children to form their own opinions about political and social issues, discover who they truly are, and know that the adults in their life are telling them the truth, even the ugly parts. It will help children see that life is both and. Life is both beautiful and hard. Our country's history is both exciting and horrific. Our children deserve to know the full truth.
Patrick Herron
Critical Race Theory is true. Ironically the banning of Critical Race Theory is the most direct form of confirming the validity of the theory. Yes, banning CRT is exactly the same as requiring racism. These gag orders and restrictions equate to requiring that institutions endorse and enforce all racist ideologies. Science is real. The concept of race is wholly unsupported by biological science. Race is however shown by the social sciences to be a wholly human-invented and constructed social phenomenon. It's also one designed to impart irreparable harm. Let's face it, banning CRT is a giant racist dog whistle. Racists are blowing that whistle to try to regain control of our most cherished and valuable institutions and make them more racist than they already are. This racism must not be tolerated anywhere. Every member of the public should learn about these matters and not be scared away by the lunatic fringe. Our teachers must be free to teach the best that human knowledge has to offer.
Alessandra Stapleford
Susan Sturm | Rochester, NY
Anti-racist teaching matters and I vow to help train teacher candidates to be anti-racist!
Franki Dennison | Portland, OR
Deborah Rummel | Sebastopol, CA
I fear that the country I love will change in ways that my students, my children and grandchildren will have to resurrect against great odds. As I teach my young students, the truth is always the way back to yourself. It is difficult for them to imagine how it is better than lying when they face consequences for their actions, but the truth about what happened and their place in it will be the seed of goodness they grow connection integrity, empathy, and the chance to be better. This is what the truth of our history provides all of us...
Martha Gensemer-Ramirez | Durham, NC
Sara Lissa Paulson | New York, NY
There is no buy-in without trust. We have to face the harm. If we don’t, the caste system here will continue. Unchecked. And it doesn’t have to be this way. Comfort is worthless with bad conscience. It was hard to recount what I just learned about the drowning of a thriving Black community and important institute of higher learning to build a dam and recreational Lake Martin in Alabama. How did that happen? We need to face it: systemic racism. Facing the harm of racism in America is akin to recovery. Acknowledging that we (still) have a problem is the first step, and it is hard, but kids are sophisticated and creative thinkers. We need them to know this. I was heartened to hear that congenital twin Jubilee Singers earned enough money in their lifetime to BUY the plantation they were enslaved on. What an amazing accomplishment! These stories will be shared in classrooms. Thank you Langston League and poet Tyehimba Jess. Teachers keep learning, wheels keep turning, and we will make education people and planet-oriented, not empire-oriented.
Natasha Khudhair Al-Dulaimi | Murphysboro, IL
History can be lost, changed, rewritten, forgotten, or even ignored. I refuse to be so irresponsible to think that only the history from my own limited perspective is all that exists. I think if we are to all evolve we can all share an expanse, that is, perhaps, beyond my wildest imaginings. I do not have to like or agree with something just to begin to understand and acknowledge that it is your experience, whether ancestral or living, and it is just as valid as my own experiences, however different.
Katie Timm | Springfield, MO
we can't and shouldn't be ignoring and/or rewriting history. We owe to out children to teach them the truth.
Pamela Livingston | San Rafael, CA
Humans can only grow in a soil of truth.
Barbara Stripling | Philadelphia, PA
We need to teach our children to think critically and search for the truth.
Shannon Schilling | Delaware, OH
Christine Drysdale | Somers, NY
the only way to be an educated person is to be able to see events/issues from multiple perspectives.
Anne Lindberg | Charlottesville, VA
"the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Ida B Wells
Katherine Olshewsky | Corona, CA
Educators need to be able to teach truth based on most current information and research. We teach critical assessment and thinking about ideas and uncovering factual information and how our lenses of bias and perspective influence our vision and interpretation. Our students benefit from knowing the richness of history, uncovering lesser known voices and identifying perspectives that may not be surfaced in the documents that we have. We want them to wonder and question, dig deeper for more information, and feel empowered that they can discuss these ideas (in a safe space), make change and move forward. I do not feel like white washing history contributes to students' love of history, learning, questioning, researching, and thinking. We want them to be excited about discovering elements of history even when those discoveries present a complicated and conflicted past. We want them to be able to learn from the past to move forward into a future that they are helping to shift into a better community for all. We need to give them credit for being strong and considerate individuals. Part of how they continue becoming those people is to learn, consider, question, discover, research a wide variety of historical narratives that contribute to our shared experience.
Kristina Detmer | Columbia, MO
Our democracy and freedom, as envisioned by our country's founders, depend on an educated population making informed decisions. Censorship benefits only those who want to destroy democracy.
Anna Gunnells | Athens, GA
Teaching children the whole truth about the history of this country is incredibly important. It would be a disservice to the future of this country to not acknowledge the struggles that have happened throughout history. There are so many types of people, other than rich, white men, that make up this country. Refusing to acknowledge the diversity of this country is dishonest, one-sided, and boring.
Kerry Hogan | Athens, GA
We must support teaching the truth. Without the ability to teach the truth, our democracy cannot stand, and this country will not live up to the Constitution's promise of "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."
Caro Ervin | Dallas, TX
I am appalled at the lengths the right will go to to oppress the truth. My students and community deserve better! I stand with all who refuse to bow down to this nonsense.
Ellen Copeland | Ypsilanti, MI
I believe in the teaching of the truth the complete and unblemished truth
Megan Ogden | Athens, GA
we will never heal until the truth is taught. Students deserve the truth. They deserve representation. They deserve teachers who understand the importance of advocacy and empathy. This all begins with teaching the entire story.
Alicia Wilson | Edmonds, WA
I believe that students and colleagues need to think critically about our past. Our history is so rich and we need to be open to examining our past through the eyes of race to discover the systemic racism that effects us today.
Samantha Barnum | Athens, GA
I believe in teaching 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.