Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Oscar Segovia | Ontario, CA
I am committed to teaching the young people of America the truth, the good the bad and the ugly, about how this wonderful Nation was founded and continues to blossom via truth and understanding of our past.
Mondo Vaden | Sacramento, CA
The honesty about what has happened in our history is not wrong. It is something that must be addressed truthfully in order to end the inequity that results when the full story and perspectives are not known. Students deserve unbiased history. The fact that it challenges norms does not negate its necessary value.
Shaun Stephens | Montpelier, VT
History matters.
Colleen Rost-Banik | Pearl City, HI
students in Hawaii need more nuanced versions of history, especially of African American history.
Megan Engelmann | Avon, OH
I believe in teaching my kids the truth so they can make our society better.
Barbara Randolph | Chicago, IL
I entered the field of education to open the world to the ever expanding minds of children. Teachers have the right and the responsibility to be honest with their students of all ages. Living with an open mind is the goal.
Matt Dunkel | Cambridge, MA
These laws are an unethical violation of the human rights of young people and educators to speak, teach, and learn truth. Our nation's healing, well-being, and future depend on our ability to understand and process our full history, so that we can co-create a better future. I will continue doing my best to live up to my calling as an educator. And I stand in solidarity with the many colleagues, young people, caregivers, and community members who are doing the same and opposing these unjust, unethical, and racist laws.
Jeanne Goka | Austin, TX
Education means Teaching the Truth. Truth matters.
Joanne Johnston | Rio Rancho, NM
Truth always matters in all learning. Institutional racism perpetuates poor health practices.
Janet Cordova | Houston, TX
Janet Cordova
Emi Morton | Bellevue, WA
our children are going to create the future.
Luis Kong | Santa Rosa, CA
Teachers of color must be free to engaged with students in a frank conversation about historical truths and myths, about their and their student's lived experiences, about racist laws that have marginalized and exterminated communities of color, about asking critical questions about race, tyranny, slavery, privilege and the human cost of such cruelty while exploring ways to become active engaged citizens in a culturally rich society.
Moe Miller | Fullerton, CA
I refuse to allow BIPOC children to believe that learning about their history is divisive, racist, unnecessary, and unimportant.
Allison O'Leary | Brevard, NC
Duncan Moran | Traverse City, MI
It is more imperative than ever to teach facts as well as to teach children how to interpret text. The history of academia has always been about academic freedom as well as ethical participation in arguement.
ama biney | London, GB
This bill undermines freedom of speech, freedom of thinking, teaching and learning.
Jessica Hernandez-Speer | Bronx, NY
I live in a state that still allows me to to teach mostly the way I choose, but I cannot take that for granted.
Marion Jordis | Guayaquil , EC
I‘m against censorship in teaching. It is important to know about history and that includes uncomfortable history. To me it seems that banning teaching critical race theory is equal to banning teaching about the holocaust. It is important to teach about those atrocities so that we can learn from it and hopefully avoid similar crimes against humanity from happening again.
Marjorie Woodruff | Chicago, IL
Susan Whorley | Tucson, AZ
I will not lie to my students.
Sharon Holston | South Bend, IN
teachers should never be forced to lie to students.
Lacie Beverly | Tonawanda, NY
Education should start from a young age
Ryan Bing | Philadelphia, PA
Bill Moye | Niceville, FL
Our local schools in Florida have unveiled a curriculum of nationalism woven throughout the new civics curriculum for 2021.
Jessica Taylor | Traverse City, MI
I want taught our whole history growing up, and only now my eyes have been opened. But I regret not seeking more and learning more earlier on. I don't want my children or my students learning false or botched history.
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.