Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Monica Bullock | Charlotte, NC
I believe that students should know the truth about history, not a white-washed one.
Kate Hughey | Charlotte, NC
I believe in the initial promise of our country and the words of the declaration. I want to be part of the solution and believe children deserve to know their country's honest, full history.
Edward Gadient | Chicago, IL
Amanda Glasbrenner | Chicago, IL
I am committed to teaching children history as it happened and through the lens of the disenfranchised, not just the victors and oppressors. I am also committed to anti racist education, tolerance, and awareness in my classroom.
Tom O'Brien | Elmwood Park, IL
Ben Passer | Chicago, IL
Isela Velazquez | Chicago, IL
It is a crime to prohibit teachers from teaching the truth about the history of this country that continues to impact us today.
Molly Phelan | Chicago, IL
I grew up in the South and learned a drastically "cleaned up" version of our history. As a college student and adult, I find myself constantly having to correct and re-learn facts that were readily available to my teachers but weren't taught to us either out of ignorance, shame or outright denial. We have to do better for the next generations of students.
David Zinder | Chicago, IL
Past is prologue.
Lorraine Estrada | New York, NY
Education must address the inequities of power, wealth and class oppression, and the constant attacks on groups seeking social justice!
Rodney Harris | Issaquah, WA
I stand in solidarity with my fellow educators who are being silenced.!
Mary Himley | Sequim, WA
Jennifer Coyle | Chicago, IL
Teaching true history and truth is important
Leiram Rivera Soto | Chicago, IL
America is a continent, not a country!
Amy Hafer | Paonia, CO
It is our obligation, responsibility and honor to educate our students on the truth so that they may better understand how things have come to be as they are at present. We can not grow and make progress forward without a honest reckoning with what has gone before and present day accountability.
Jocelyn Vale | Elmwood Park, IL
We’ve come to far to bud the truth now.
Steven Bergmark | Chicago, IL
Ann Griffin | Saint Paul, MN
I believe our children deserve the truth. I believe in them.
Amanda Trout , MO
It is vital that students learn the truth about American history. We cannot do better unless we know the truth.
J. Tracy Power | Newberry, SC
Because the only way for this nation to truly live up to its stated ideals--which have never been as universal as they should have been and as they must be--is for educators to teach the truth(s) about American history, ALL of them, and for us to discuss those truths and their tangled legacies with our students and our communities. We are in a moment in which that long-overdue education and conversation MUST happen for our nation to become what it can and should be.
Jeanne Bergeron | Fredericksburg, VA
Truth matters. Everyone matters. We must speak out when something is wrong, and share out when something is right. Truth matters!
Jesse Braitman | Sparrows Point, MD
Laura Francis | Sparrows Point, MD
Katerina Kiriazopoulos | Chicago, IL
My students deserve to know how their lives are affected by systems that are actively working against them.
Maks Malec | Chicago, IL
We have a duty to study and reflect on the past of our country and the world.
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.