Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Joylyn Weikum | Shawnee, KS
Silence is not neutral. Silence perpetuates the inequitable status quo. If we can’t say what racism is, then how do we stop what racism does?
Jennifer Durbin | Kansas City, MO
Eliza Eaton-Stern | Denver, CO
My students of color deserve not to be lied to about their own lived experiences. My white students deserve me treating them like they aren’t too fragile to hear about things our ancestors did. And all my students deserve my unflinching honesty about the world we live in and the past that led us here.
Dan Andersen | Plymouth, MN
Michael Rassel | Chicago, IL
To "TEACH THE TRUTH" is to teachers what "DO NO HARM" is to Medical Professionals.
Erin Lynch | Chicago, IL
Noelle Walters | East Providence, RI
All children deserve to learn to think for themselves based on factual information
Tina Padio | Chicago, IL
As a teacher it is my moral and ethical duty to teach the truth.
Alison Walters | South Deerfield, MA
Students must be given the opportunity to learn about the true history of humanity - that means not just US History, but World History. The difficult, the inspiring, the changes that have brought us into the 21st Century - students need to learn ALL of it. Our students need to truly understand how complicated the world is in order to participate in ways that can make our future better
Vanessa Alvarado | Evanston, IL
Tifenn Navarro | Pelham, NY
this matters and the only way to make a change is learn about true History, which sometimes is pretty ugly.
Helen Serafino-Agar | San Francisco, CA
students deserve the truth.
Rachel Brick | Chicago, IL
I pledge to empower students to teach and tell their own stories.
Bertina Renee Booker | Chicago, IL
The truth should be heard at all times
dua yang | Minneapolis, MN
Truth emancipates, empowers, strengthens, and drives us to transform education.
Mary Hollowell | Peachtree City, GA, GA
"And judgement is turn away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." - Isaiah 59:14
Meg Scata | Portland, CT
I believe we need to teach facts from experts Frederick Douglass quote: For it is not light that is needed, but fire...For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
Courtney Petersen | Independence, MO
I want students to know the truth. Students don’t need lies. History will continue to repeat itself if we don’t learn from our mistakes. How can we heal if we can’t name the problem?
Keely Eastley | Cambridge, MA
The history of black, indigenous and people of Asian descent have rarely been told. The backdrop of racial supremacy assumed and enacted by Caucasian people has not been owned. The fuller history must be known by students and all.
Angela Chong | Montebello, CA
There is no way that you can understand the present without fully understanding history. Students of color already know the reality and by not being honest and real they won't activily engage in their education.
Kelly Fischer | Chicago, IL
Equity and diversity are the cornerstone of our culture.
Shelley L Gatti | Golden Valley, MN
Theodore Bryan | Cape May Court House, NJ
Our future is dependent on the ability to get receive a complete and unbiased education.
Evelyn Gonzalez | Chicago, IL
Connie Pham | Laguna Niguel, CA
the truth does not flourish in silence about painful and difficult topics; an avoidance of controversy will only stunt our students' abilities to grapple with complexity, ambiguity, and depth as they grow to inherit this earth. May academic and all forms of freedom reign!
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.