Teach Truth Day of Action | |
If you are available on short notice, please join us for the Teach Truth Day of Action Press Call to hear from these wonderful speakers about why it is important to defend the freedom to learn. | |
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Rocio Inclan, senior director, National Education Association Center for Racial and Social Justice
Michael Rady, senior education programs manager, GLSEN
Courtland Cox, board chair, SNCC Legacy Project
Julie Womack, head of organizing, Red, Wine, & Blue
Jocelyn Walker, vice president of communications, African American Policy Forum
Terry Ann Scott, executive director, Institute for Common Power
Gregory Wickenkamp, educator and Iowa City event host
Megan Madison, author of children’s books, including Our Skin
Nikki Grimes, award-winning author of many children’s/YA books, including Ordinary Hazards
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Moderated by Jesse Hagopian, Rethinking Schools editor, high school teacher, and Zinn Education Project leadership team member.
The Press Call is on Tuesday, June 4 from 12:00 pm ET to 12:50 pm ET — less than an hour. Attendees will pick up key talking points to use on the Teach Truth Day of Action and all year long.
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Children’s future depends on what they learn today.
However, across the country, legislatures have passed laws to criminalize teaching honestly about U.S. history and to restrict students’ ability to ask questions and think critically. The laws’ chilling effect reaches classrooms nationwide. Textbooks and high-stakes testing have also long distorted curricula.
In this election year, that is why educators are hosting more than 160 events to challenge the media silence and encourage everyone to defend the freedom to learn.
Kansas City high school teacher and event co-organizer Michael Rebne said,
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Our students demand to learn the truth even if a small group of powerful, mostly wealthy, white adults is threatened by that.
At this moment we see a rise in both Islamophobia and antisemitism, stoked by the same right-wing forces that seek to further marginalize LGBTQIA+ students and the voices of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and all people of color.
We need to set the record straight and remember that we are stronger united.
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Why else?
SNCC veteran Judy Richardson said at a Teach Truth rally last year that we organize so that “The fascists can’t stop us!”
This year many teachers and students are being attacked for speaking truthfully about Palestinians’ human rights. Mary Beth Tinker, Tinker v. Des Moines plaintiff, addresses the need to defend “U.S. students who use their free speech rights to stand up for Gaza and call for a ceasefire, which is the road to peace for Israeli youth as well.”
The climate crisis threatens students’ future, yet gets scant attention in corporate media and textbooks. The anti-history laws and book bans make a bad situation worse, as Bill Bigelow describes in, The Attack on Anti-Racist Teaching Attacks Environmental Justice Teaching.
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There are events in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlottesville, Chicago, Cleveland, D.C., Fairbanks, Hartford, Indianapolis, Iowa City, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Newark, Richmond, San Juan, Seattle, Syracuse, Youngstown, and dozens more cities. They are led by classroom teachers, teacher educators, librarians, NAACP chapters, unions, and more. | |
More than 65 organizations are co-sponsoring the Teach Truth Day of Action, including the Abolitionist Teaching Network, the African American Policy Forum, American Library Association, Black Lives Matter at School, Black Teacher Project, GLSEN, HEAL Together, Institute for Common Power, National Education Association, SNCC Legacy Project, and more. | |
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How to Join the Day of Action | There are options for EVERYONE to defend the freedom to learn. | |
- Go to a historic site and take a photo with a Teach Truth sign that you make or download. Share on social media with #TeachTruth
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Donate so that we can continue to organize events like these and defend the right of teachers across the United States to teach people’s history.
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Our Teach Truth Media Guide is for everyone seeking to communicate with the media or others about the dangers of anti-history education legislation and book bans, the importance of teaching truthfully, and the rights of LGBTQ+ students.
Although this guide was designed for the Teach Truth Days of Action, it can be used all year.
We include responses to frequently asked questions on systemic racism, LGBTQ identity, parents’ rights, Critical Race Theory, and more. This year we’ve added FAQs on Palestine, antisemitism, and Project 2025.
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Teachers and students on the Truth Walk in Decatur. Photo by Dean Hesse, 2022. | We encourage everyone to support the Teach Truth Day of Action on June 8 and to defend the freedom to learn all year long. We can combat the chilling effect by speaking out. Don’t let fear win. | |
Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so that we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them. | | | | |
