Let’s Transform the Teaching of History

Dear Zinn Education Project friends,

A premise of the Zinn Education Project is that if our students had access to a more truthful, people’s history of our country, it would inoculate them against the mounting lies and distortions of the right wing. We have an ambitious plan to reach more students than ever before, but we need your help.

A while back, a longtime Zinn Education Project (ZEP) supporter — a retired social studies teacher and teacher union activist — offered to help fund a new position at ZEP: a teacher organizer who would travel the country and arrange regional ZEP gatherings where teachers would share people’s history lessons, strategies, and new curriculum.

We thought this was a terrific idea, and were moved by this individual’s generosity. We recruited a passionate teacher with an organizing background who can begin in September. We now need your help to generate $40,000, which we’ll add to our initial donor’s contribution and fully fund our organizer’s work.

Imagine how we can transform the teaching of history by knitting together our ZEP network — now at more than 71,000 and growing — and provide them with even more extensive people’s history resources. Resources that can help students question, but also can inspire and empower.

To realize this vision, we’d like your help. Our retired teacher friend has generously agreed to fund a third of this effort.

Please help us raise the $40,000 needed to make up the balance of our goal.

Now more than ever, in the face of rising racism, xenophobia, and attacks on the environment, students desperately need to know the real history of this country — and that positive change occurs only when people organize to make it happen.

You can help teachers alert hundreds of thousands of students to a fuller U.S. and world history — a people’s history. Contribute generously today and lift this important project off the ground.

Sincerely,

Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project for Rethinking Schools	Deborah Menkart, co-director of the Zinn Education Project for Teaching for Change

P.S. This is the first time we have had a targeted donation like this to connect ZEP to teachers face-to-face, to reach thousands more students. Please contribute today and help us make this opportunity a reality.