The pledge was signed by one teacher on Jan. 18, the day before. It now has 221 pledges from Philadelphia teachers.
They’re one of the thousands of US teachers pledging to continue educating students about the controversial Critical Race Theory, which explains racism is embedded in US culture and politics.
Comments from Philadelphia teachers included, "If I'm not teaching the truth, I'm lying" and "Our children deserve and need to know the truth about the history of our country...good and bad".
Though the concept was first suggested in the late 70’s, it has recently exploded as a contentious issue between the American right and left in the last two years.
Many who signed the pledge are defying state bans on the teachings. Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas have passed legislation banning discussions about the US being inherently racist.
Other states, such as Montana and South Dakota, have denounced the teachings without passing specific legislation.
In an interview with The Washington Free Beacon', Ashley Varner of the Freedom Foundation accused the Zinn Education Project of providing “left-leaning propaganda to teachers.”
Teachers in Philadelphia who’ve pledged to teach Critical Race Theory
| Teachers | Thoughts on Critical Race Theory |
|---|---|
| Abram Taber | to ignore the racism in our past is to do a disservice to our students in the present. Uncomfortable events shouldn't be ignored or sugar-coated, equally in music education as in history and social studies. There is a reason Elvis is called "the king of rock and roll" and not one of the numerous Black American musicians who pioneered the genre long before Mr. Presley set voice to tape. My students deserve to know who was left out of our country's (and world's) music history and why, in order reckon with and remedy these errors and omissions. |
| Adam Bailey | we must understand our world in order to change it! |
| Adam Blyweiss | No comment |
| Adam Fein | You cannot be neutral on a moving train. |
| Adam Sanchez | No comment |
| Adrienne Walls | Teach Truth indeed!!! We must fully atone for allowing one human to LEGALLY OWN another...or we will NEVER heal!!! |
| Aileen Haggerty | No comment |
| Aimee Shelton | Students need to be taught the truth. |
| Aisha Eubanks | It is not critical race theory in k-12 it is called being Culturally Responsive and teaching truth based history which is based on systemic racism. I plan to continue doing just that. |
| Alex Kopp | We must understand the past to improve the future |
| Amanda Roesly | I am a school district employee and care deeply about the future generations. I want to see change and truth happening in our schools |
| Amelia Tedesco | No comment |
| Amy McCourt | I believe in teaching facts and truth and antiracist education. |
| Andrew Saltz | If I'm not teaching the truth, I'm lying |
| Aneesah Jarrett | I will not lie to my students about the history of their ancestors in this country. It is our duty as Americans to know and accept the actions of the past. It will only unite and strengthen us for the future. |
| Angela Chan | No comment |
| Angela Iovine | We must tell our students the truth! |
| Anissa Weinraub | No comment |
| Ann Perepezko | No comment |
| Anna Herman | Facts and truth matter. |
| Anne Tacchino | our students deserve to learn honest accounts of this nation’s history; the good, the bad and the ugly - so they might grow into the next wave of change makers. |
| Annie Lovetthall | We need the truth |
| April Marinell | I was taught that “honesty is the best policy”. I believe that ignoring truths and perspectives in our history is unconscionable. |
| Audra Deprisco | Children deserve to know the full history of the country they will one day need to govern. |
| Awilda Balbuena | There is enormous value in providing young people with the language, the history, and the framework to identify why their society looks the way it does. Understanding that all of this was done not by accident but by design. How different might our country look if all of us fully understood what has happened here |
| Barbara Stripling | We need to teach our children to think critically and search for the truth. |
| Barbara Williams | We must not revert to the days when only the "whitewashed version" of our country's history is taught . ( when I went to school).The truth will set us free! |
| Benjamin Springle | Students deserve to know our country for all its strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. We are entrusted to help young people become their best selves by learning facts, not fiction. |
| Bianca Davis | History needs to be taught accurately and unbiasedly to fully understand one's future. |
| Blair Downie | No comment |
| Brian Gallagher | No comment |
| Brittani Caponegro | No comment |
| Catherine Pickering | No comment |
| Celeste Winston | No comment |
| Charlie McGeehan | No comment |
| Chloe Polentes | Students need to know true history in order to aid in change. |
| Christina Cantrill | Silence equals death; not talking about history and reconciling with what happened only cause more pain and injustice to occur. |
| Christine Chisholm | I believe that schools are an essential part of a working democracy, helping to create informed voting citizens. We shouldn’t be afraid to face our history as Americans; in fact, we must do so if we want to keep our democracy alive. |
| Christine Chisholm | It’s my professional duty to prepare students to be responsible and active members of our democracy. |
| Christopher Rogers | The [educator] must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. |
| Christopher Sikich | The truth about the history of this country and humanity in general is vital to understand our place in a just and fair future. |
| Clarice Brazas | No comment |
| Corey Davila | No comment |
| Cornelia Kietzman | We all deserve to know the complete truth |
| Dana Morrison | No comment |
| Danielle Farley | We cannot move forward if we don't teach the truth. |
| Danielle Grodek | No comment |
| Danika Nieves | “Bans on critical race theory” are bad faith pieces of legislation being pushed by the same people who proclaim to support academic freedom and ridicule “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings.” The arguments lack consistency, serve to leverage bigotry, and frankly, most of the proponents of this legislation are unable to define or explain critical race theory. |
| Danina Garcia | My students, despite facing racism and threats their entire lives, talk eloquently about their belief in the United States. They do this not in spite of my teaching them the awful and heartbreaking truths of our past, but because of it. Only these state legislatures appear to believe that racism and hate are so intrinsic to the US that you cannot be a true American if you reject them. These legislators are telling on themselves. |
| David Backer | No comment |
| David Elesh | It is outrageous that teachers be restricted to teaching biased history. |
| Dawn Pratson | I think that we cannot budge the intractable, systemic condition of racism without telling the truth. |
| Debora Kodish | I am fully committed to critical folklore pedagogy: how we teach one another how to be decent people and to imagine and build freedom. The full truths of the past must be spoken and known. This is a moment when we must stand up and tell the truth about the extreme violence that has been done. That continues as long it goes unrecognized and unnamed. This is the moment to recognize Indigenous and African American experience, as known and articulated and enacted from the people themselves. It is the duty of all of us to decolonize and to work to dismantle white supremacy, racial capitalism, settler colonialism and other forms of bias violence. It is the only way forward. I am grateful to Zinn Education project for its long commitment to helping us educate ourselves towards freedom, seeking and teaching beautiful community as movement tool. |
| Deborah Wagner | There is nothing more important than truth and education. It is simply autocratic brain washing to prevent professional educators from teaching history and science as we now know it. |
| Denise Douglas | We can't progress and change, if we don't know the truth! |
| Donna Sharer | As a student, I was not told the truth. We need school to be safe spaces to explore, critique and challenge injustice and inequity to build a more humane and equitable society for everyone - in the U.S. and around the world. |
| Dorine Waugh-Sanders | I have made the promise to myself, my students and my school to teach my students the truth about the history about the African American people, in my African American History class, and the truth about any history that I am teaching. |
| Duncan Gromko | No comment |
| Dustin Kidd | No comment |
| Elisabeth Bass | How can my students become empowered without understanding systems of oppression? Too often, the impact of oppression keeps them from seeing themselves as advocates for a better future. |
| Emily Simpson | No comment |
| Emma Bechill | No comment |
| Emma Steinheimer | No comment |
| Emmy Talian | My students deserve the opportunity to read about and discuss the key issues of the day, as well as understand the historic roots of these issues. We need to trust our young people to form their own views with all the facts. Only then can they lead us into a more just and equitable future. |
| Emmy Talian | Our students deserve to hear multiple, critical perspectives and to reach their own conclusions from complete information. |
| Eric Hitchner | I am fortunate to teach at a school that is anti-racist and encourages creativity and critical thinking. I am signing in solidarity with those who are not free to expose and challenge their students with the full picture of our country and in recognition of the constant threat all educators face through censorship and a push to water down the truth. |
| Eric Moran | As professional educators, we cannot be intimidated into teaching nationalist versions of our history, which will only continue to marginalize many of our students. We will not be bullied by far right elites who profit off of the ignorance of the masses. |
| Erica Stefanovich | US history is not always happy or good. Avoiding complex human stories in favor of simplified deification of the past robs children of the ability to think critically about the past and creates a less analytical populace. |
| Eva Weiss | No comment |
| Evan Bourgeois | I believe in teaching truth, I believe in righting wrongs, and I believe in the power of humanity to make the world a better place. |
| Faris Carter | Our students deserve the truth and the ability to think critically. |
| Fatim Byrd | children need to learn the truth about their history. |
| Gabby Linck | I have a duty as an educator to teach the whole truth |
| Gail Kantor | Our children deserve and need to know the truth about the history of our country...good and bad. |
| Gianni Gaudino | No comment |
| Grace Gonglewski | It is imperative to speak the truth about our history. |
| Gregg Alpert | It is my obligation to speak truth to power! |
| Griffin Pepper | The reality of my students’ lived experiences is rooted in this history of oppression and racism, and I refuse to teach my students that their truth is false. |
| Hannah Gann | No comment |
| Heather Cook | No comment |
| Heather Green | ...because I want my students to have a fuller and more accurate history education than I received. |
| Ismael Jimenez | No comment |
| Jaime Higgins | Our students live in a disenfranchised world were they know some people will get everything they ask for and some (mostly them) will get nothing. I work to fight this mentality everyday and will continue to do so regardless of what politicians want me to teach. History should not only be what the victorious write. History should be all sides of every story, not just the shiny parts. |
| James Hardy | Education requires truth. |
| Janine De Novais | the attack on teaching the truth about the history and reality of racism is unethical and is an attack on the future health of this democracy |
| Jemma Malkasian | Gaslighting America’s youth should never be something we are proud to call “educating.” |
| Jen Bradley | No comment |
| Jen Freed | No comment |
| Jenifer Felix | No comment |
| Jenifer Felix | the truth is important and all children deserve to know how history has shaped their reality |
| Jennifer Jones | It’s hard to watch people perform extreme mental gymnastics to qualify their inability to take responsibility for the way history has *actually* happened. The more people continue to deny history, and the fewer people there are who stand up and take them to task, it’s the same thing playing out over and over for our tired, unfortunate, destructive US education status quo. Discomfort should be the norm, and instead it’s avoided at all costs. It hurts everyone more in the end. Everyone. |
| Jeremy Glazer | No comment |
| Jeri Bond Whatley | It is vital that we teach the truth about our country's history because it is vital that our young people learn it, know it, and act to correct systems that hinder our growth and prosperity as individuals of every race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation; hinder our growth and prosperity as citizens; and hinder our growth and prosperity as a country. To acknowledge the harms of the past is to avoid repeating them in the future. To acknowledge the achievements of past is to highlight and celebrate them now and in the future. Our children deserve to know our true history, not whitewashed or selective history. These are our truths and we must not hide or ignore them. To do so will lead to our downfall. |
| Jeri Johnson | Students have a fundamental right to know the truth. |
| Jerriel Hall | No comment |
| Jessica McCollum | No comment |
| Jessica Shore | No comment |
| Jill Turco | There is nothing more important than truth! |
| Jonathan Goulet | As an educator, it is my role to help teach my students the true history of our country and the current inequities. |
| Jonathan Satlow | No comment |
| Joseph Jones | all of American history needs to be able to be part of the school experience for all our students. |
| Joshua Block | Education needs to be based on reality, not myths. |
| Joyce Johnson | I believe we should teach our children the truth. The truth of this country’s oppression of people of color. Of how we are concerned for the safety of every child of color and why we have to worry everyday about our children, especially those of color. |
| Julia Barrett | No comment |
| Julie Ungerer | to do otherwise is not an option. |
| Justine Philyaw | No comment |
| Kara Stephens | No comment |
| Karen McShane | as the saying goes, those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Without learning about difficult truths, children become adults who don't understand the world that they live in. Without learning about different perspectives, children become adults who hate and fear what they don't understand. We cannot allow a generation of students to become become the next generation of Nazis, believing a homogenous, mythological history that excludes (at best) and scapegoats (at worst) anyone who is Other. |
| Katherine Barlow | No comment |
| Katherine Lauher | No comment |
| Katherine Perry | No comment |
| Katherine Riley | No comment |
| Katherine Volin | No comment |
| Kathleen Butts | No comment |
| Katie Miller | No comment |
| Kelsey Romano | No comment |
| Ken Hung | No comment |
| Kerry Goldman | No comment |
| Kevin Katz | No comment |
| Keziah Ridgeway | The truth is the truth. CRT is an analyzation of real history. |
| Kristian Ogungbemi | No comment |
| Kristin Larsen | No comment |
| Kristin Luebbert | I refuse to lie to my students about how the country was built, who built it, and at what human cost. I will not gaslight my students by denying the existence of white supremacy and white privilege. All students deserve to be taught tge truth. |
| Kristin Nakaishi | Black students’ lives matter! |
| Kristine Morrow | There can be no reconciliation in this fissured nation, there can be no meeting the aims of justice and equality intrinsic to the democratic ideal; there can be no end to the discrimination, injustice and violence so much more widespread in this democracy than than among our democratic peers without the truths of the past being fully told. |
| Kurt Ahrens | Learning from the past (in science and the humanities) requires a critical assessment of evidence. Since race has been a divisive and significant issue since the beginning of European colonization of the Americas, we must acknowledge and consider the role race has played in our history and the shaping of our present society. Ignorance might be bliss, but knowledge is power! |
| Kyle Apgar | No comment |
| Larisa Mann | No comment |
| Laura McNeill | History should not be whitewashed. |
| Lauralynn Sweet | No comment |
| Lauren Vargas | No comment |
| Laurie Mazer | I want our teachers to be free to teach the truth about our world. Lawmakers in at least 15 states are attempting to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history.I support our educators across the U.S. who are signing a pledge to teach the truth. |
| Leah Wood | No comment |
| Leslie Greenberg | No comment |
| Liam Lair | No comment |
| Linda Kim | No comment |
| Lisa Yau | History needs to be taught: the good, the bad and the ugly. |
| Loretta Solomon | I tried to create curriculum that would appeal to my students because it told the truth about US history and reflected characters who looked like them. |
| Lori Johnson | Students must be taught the truth |
| Louis Ackelsberg | No comment |
| Luciany Melo Da Silva | #teachtruth |
| Lydia Cochran | not doing so would be cheating my students out of a truth that they need to know in order to navigate the world they live in and become contributing citizens of. |
| Lynette Lazarus | No comment |
| Maddie Luebbert | No comment |
| Margaret Myers | No comment |
| Mari Errico | No comment |
| Marin Seng | No comment |
| Marita Fitzpatrick | Truth is not political. Teaching lies is wrong. Authoritarian politicians are working to silence the truth. |
| Mary Stricker | We must reckon with our hard truths as a step towards transformative liberation for all of us! |
| Matt Zorzi | No comment |
| Matthew Stein | Legislation banning the teaching of discrimination isn't just a pathway to totalitarianism; it is totalitarian by definition. |
| Maxwell Hibbard | Kids deserve to know the truth! |
| Maya Anderson | No comment |
| Megan Owens | As someone who has been educated in this country and is now an educator, I realize that so much of what should shame us about our racial history has been suppressed. We can not have true racial reconciliation and equity if we do not tell the truth. And no teacher should have to worry about legal action against them if they are teaching historical truth. |
| Melissa Gude | No comment |
| Michael Coard | History is truth and truth is essential to students and everyone else. |
| Michael Misciagna | No comment |
| Michael Smaczylo | I refuse to lie to my students about the structures that have been put in place to keep them disempowered. |
| Michele Messer | As a parent and a school psychologist, I believe supporting understanding through perspective taking and contexualizing experience. I will support any and all efforts to dismantle systems that prevent students and families from reaching their potential. Critical thinking about our nation’s history is an essential step. |
| Michelle Desjardins | kids deserve to learn the truth and evaluate it on their own accord. |
| Miriam Oppenheimer | I can't wait to get started |
| Miriam Oppenheimer | Of course I will teach the truth. What else is there? |
| Monica Zimmerman | Being Unapologetically Me cannot be silenced. |
| Monique McKenney | No comment |
| Myfanwy Lucca | We were taught lies as kids. It’s up to us to teach the truth about our history. No more whitewashing! |
| Nadia Jlelaty | we will not be silenced! |
| Nathaniel Kim | protecting students' ability to understand the harmful history of our country is an imperative interdisciplinary necessity |
| Nellie Kollar | No comment |
| Nick Bernardini | No comment |
| Olivia Jones | I refuse to lie to children in order to strengthen the hold of white supremacy on our society. |
| Pamela Oppenheimer | Music and art are representative of and created from cultural experiences. I cannot teach about music without teaching accurate representations of past and current cultural experiences. It would be a disservice and a lie to my students to ignore the history of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and oppression marginalized groups have faced in this country that have created countless songs, musical artists, and shaped genres of music and the shape of American music and global music today. |
| Parents United For Public Education Advocacy | Belief in whitewashed lies continues to fuel gross inequities in publice education. Children deserve the promise that a strong fully resourced truthfully public education can provide. Truth Matters. Teach truth. |
| Paula Crawford | there are endless accounts of BIPOC past either inaccurately or so anesthetized in current history books that it is ethically and immorally vexing to share lies!!! |
| Polly Kimberly | I am deeply troubled by the legislative efforts to erase a history that we as a nation have yet to fully grapple with. Until we do fully acknowledge our racist history and all of the systems of oppression still at work, we can never live up to our democratic ideals. |
| Primus N. | The truth matters. |
| Rafi Karjadi | No comment |
| Rebecca Ray | Students need to know the truth about their history, their culture and their heritage. We have white washed history for too long. I also think it is important to include racism in the curriculum. |
| Rob Wildes | As a follower of Christ, I must reconcile w our country’s horrid past in order to help others heal. |
| Robert Rivera-Amezola | No comment |
| Robin Lowry | If I don't teach the truth in Health class then students marginalized by the health care system or suspicious of the health care system based on historical policies and practices in this country will not develop agency in managing their own health and understanding their feelings. No child should wonder if they are alone or "the only one who feels this way." I will always speak the truth about the history of health care, the realities of environmental racism and the facts of human sexuality and identity. |
| Robin Roberts | The truth is important. |
| Rosaleigh Blackmer | No comment |
| Rose Bruce | my students deserve the truth always not just when it's convenient for politicians. |
| Rosemary Barbera | No comment |
| Roxanna Thomas Johnson | Today and pass students be able to have a voice about their history of injustice miss education about the truth and why was it surpressed all these years. |
| Ryan Bing | No comment |
| Samantha Chomsky | No comment |
| Samantha Daniels | It is unethical for me as a social worker in a school not to support my students in processing systemic racism and to be complicit as these conversations are silenced. |
| Samantha Desch | No comment |
| Samantha Gross | No comment |
| Samantha Minatti | No comment |
| Sara Mrljak | I know that my students deserve to head the truth! |
| Sarah Caswell | Everyone deserves the truth and to have their story told and we all deserve to know the truth about our country’s history. |
| Sarah Clemency | No comment |
| Sarah Duenas | No comment |
| Sarah Goldman | my students deserve to learn the truth behind racism and Eurocentrism in math history and beyond! |
| Sean Welch | We cannot hide the truth from the next generation. |
| Shannon Bertoni | No comment |
| Sharif El-Mekki | Educational and racial justice are forever inextricably linked and to use education as a lever to pursue both, truth must be centered. |
| Shaw MacQueen | No comment |
| Sheila Myers | My students deserve to know truth and justice. |
| Skyla Ruck | No comment |
| Sonia Rosen | No comment |
| Sophia Mangasarian | No comment |
| Sophia Schuster | No comment |
| Spencer Koelle | Censorship is bad. |
| Stephanie Felder | Teaching students to think historically is important. |
| Stephanie Waters | Teaching hard history is important. Even at a young age. |
| Steven Buller | Fascists are attempting to erode the ability of educators and communities to fight back. Hiding behind mythologies and spreading lies will only further increase authoritarianism. I believe in telling the truth. I will be telling the truth. |
| Stormydhae Kelsey | You cannot hide American history because it is "divisive", we must confront the truths of our past so we can do better in the future.“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced" - James Baldwin |
| Tamara Anderson | No comment |
| Tamek Holman | I will teach the truth. |
| Tara Shaw | No comment |
| Tasha Russell | No comment |
| The Fellowship Black Male Educators For Social Justice | As Black male educators committed to social, racial, and educational justice, we cannot ignore these oppressive tactics wielded against teaching truth, educating critical thinkers, and informed citizens. |
| Thomas Quinn | No comment |
| Tim Whelan | I believe in the real true history. I believe in Critical Race Theory! |
| Trey Smith | No comment |
| Wende Marshall | No comment |
| Zoe M. Ehrenberg | No comment |
| Zoe Rooney | collective liberation comes through understanding the truth. |
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