Signatures
This is the list of people who have signed the pledge or petition to date.
Kevin Schroedter | Gambrills, MD
the truth is important, and we cannot continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Kasey Butker | San Juan, PR
I want to teach the truth.
Alyssa Kleinhans | Pietermaritzburg, ZA
We can’t grow from the past if we pretend it’s something other than it is
Sara Verhalen | San Mateo, CA
I am committed to teaching my students the whole truth about our country's history and recent and current events
Nicole Sturgeon | Livonia, MI
I believe that every discipline has a responsibility to teach truthfully and instill critical thinking skills in our students.
Katherine Hanna | Watertown, MA
my little students need to be empowered and emboldened with the truth if we ever hope to achieve a more just society in this country.
Anon Anon | Davenport, IA
I taught children from all over the world in San Francisco for many years. How could I misrepresent our country and its true history to them much less the born citizens? How would I keep a child from China from knowing that there was no oppression of her/his people in California, or the boy from Africa about the truth of slavery and the Civil War? How would I teach Indigenous Peoples' Day (Columbus Day) when there were Natives in my class? Pretend I was superior to all those children and oh, I wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of the one or two white Americans amongst us? I am disgusted at our governor and lawmakers in Iowa. Real teachers don't lie.
Nancy Vera | Corpus Christi, TX
Corpus Christi, Texas, is the birthplace of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. The League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum were founded here, and our families take great pride in our history. The Texas Legislature was proposing the elimination of this history in our classrooms. As a matter of pride and as a matter of our local history, it would have meant the disenfranchisement of our entire community from our history books. This was unacceptable. After strong local opposition, the legislature eliminated this provision from consideration this week.
Renee Mavrofidis | Rosedale, NY
To legalize blackness in America
Eileen Wilson | Austin, TX
Michele Zirelli | Redwood City, CA
I believe in teaching about race and the truths in history!!!
Patrycja Baran-Quintana | Chicago, IL
It is pertinent to teach the truth.
Melissa Leverett-King | Attleboro, MA
As a part Cherokee, Black American, I have been lied to all my life. I witnessed the pain of my ancestors protecting me from the truth of our true history. The history of Americans is shameful and I refuse to continue the lies!
wendy jordan | Seattle, WA
I want to trust that I will have the right words and actions when the time comes.
Hom Skoolkids | Brooklyn, NY
Ronda Taylor Bullock, PhD | Durham, NC
We deserve to live in a society rooted in truth and liberation. Whitewashing our country's history will not get us there.
Michael DeBartolo | Brooklyn, NY
The only way we can dismantle white supremacy is by naming it, and understanding how it shapes society today. The dignity, safety, and equity of BIPOC in this country should never be compromised. Teach the truth so we can have the knowledge and tools to build the world we claim to live in.
Melissa Strommen | Champlin, MN
We can't learn from the past to design a better future unless we know what really happened in that past and why.
Nicole Goins | Homestead, PA
the truth will set you free!
Leeann Sullivan | Muncie, IN
It is our moral obligation as educators to inform our students of the truth of past oppressions to help prevent history repeating itself.
Denise Tedford | West Milford, NJ
The truth of history is important if we are ever going to figure out how to make change in regards to racial issues.
Geoff Mize | Westerville, OH
Students must learn about the present by studying the past. That learning must be as complete as possible. We cannot afford our future citizens to be partially educated. They must become critical thinkers to fully participate in America's democratic experiment. That will open happen if they learn history that is not sanitized and whitewashed.
Susan Forrest | Pittsburgh, PA
I believe in truth and equity for all.
Sharlene Justo | La Mesa, CA
Hilary Roach | Florence, OR
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.