Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Leslie Jones | Oklahoma City, OK
"You are entitle to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts."
Amy Nocton | Storrs Mansfield, CT
I have always believed in teaching the truth and our role as educators to give our students opportunities to explore and question not only history but current events.
Megan Altman | Mount Vernon, IA
Andrew Kreuser | Cambridge, MA
Samantha Shelby | Grapevine, TX
Marvin Kelley
Tamar Paull | Providence, RI
Students deserve the truth.
Lexie Goodrow | Holyoke, MA
Hiding the truth from our students only hurts us as a society more. We need to prepare our students for the world and part of that is teaching them the truth of how our world came to be as it is now.
Areli Berlanga | Grand Rapids, MI
As a teacher candidate, I believe my future students should have the right to learn about the truth of our nation's history.
Matthew McCarthy | Chiang Mai, TH
I am absolutely terrified by the fact that laws across the country make it illegal to teach basic facts about our country's past. These laws and the subsequent hysteria surrounding "critical race theory" endanger educators' already constrained ability to fully inform students about America's past as well as teach them to reason with evidence. Our country and our democracy depends on informed, equity-minded citizens basing their actions and beliefs on evidence.
Timothy Hobson | Muang Chiang Mai, TH
My international students can make connections with the painful legacies of colonialism that have impacted their life experiences and shaped their world views.
Kareem Neal | Phoenix, AZ
students deserve the truth.
Christopher Kruger | Chicago, IL
Education should be ennobling to the human spirit, not founded in fear and hate.
Robyn McCloud-Springer | Park Ridge, IL
Sarah Schillaci | South Orange, NJ
Gus Buchanan | Burlington, VT
Mikkel Canlapan | Las Vegas, NV
I believe in the truth of history, not matter how bleak or how upsetting. You cannot not tell me that America was built on racism if the U.S systematically destroyed Indigenous culture and peoples. But most importantly, it’s absurd to assume a student cannot separate history from the modern day.
Jessica Claudio | Young America, MN
Shannon Terry | Tulsa, OK
Tanishia Williams | Brooklyn, NY
I believe in equity and inclusive instruction.
Greg Tichenor | Louisville, KY
we must move beyond the oppressive systems that prevent us from recognizing the humanity of everyone.
Hillary Moldovan | Beaverton, OR
I went into Education because of the voices that were lost and the ones not being heard. Now I and my fellow white teachers have to take the responsibility that all voices will be heard and listened to.
Rev. James Swarts | Rochester, NY
I believe it is the responsibility of every educator to help students develop critical thinking and learn how to evaluate historical fact from propaganda.
Leticia Alvarez | Indianapolis, IN
I believe that the truth needs to be taught in public schools. It saddens me to see so many children in my classroom with very low self esteem. If we could only teach them how much people of color have contributed to this nation, maybe they would be encouraged to strive for good grades, to participate in their education.
Kevin Young | Amherst, MA
We need to fight the New McCarthyism. "Conservative" is a euphemism for those who are trying to whitewash US history. They are not just conservatives, they are Orwellian propaganda agents dedicated to silencing the past in order to enable racist violence, class domination, and empire, and to preventing responsible responses to the climate and Covid emergencies. Their agenda targets the most vulnerable and marginalized populations but it also harms the entire 99%, including the white working and professional classes and most of the people who self-identify as "conservative."
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.