Defender of America and educationReported by: Yankee Tea News
Here is a well-thought-out presentation to the Greenwich, Connecticut Board of Education
during last nights meeting.
Simpa Biya made a brilliant speech.
Here is the text:
Board members:
My name is Simpa Baiye, and I appreciate the opportunity to provide comments. I am a newer resident of Greenwich and have children who will almost certainly go through the town’s public education system. That said, I have developed serious concerns as I have learned about aspects of the school curriculum. I am now sadly aware of the disturbing content that seeks to divide innocent young children by race. Many concerned parents refer to this content as “critical race theory.”
At least one board member has publicly denied that critical race theory is taught, but I think that the denial is misinformed at best. I therefore urge the board to address and remove curriculum content that automatically classifies one race as oppressive and blacks or designated minorities as victims. Such content is purely political and patently false.
I am a French-born immigrant – and now proud US citizen - who moved to the United States from my native country of Nigeria 20 years ago with $300 in savings, a good education, and a dream to succeed in one of the only open societies on the face of the planet. I have been treated with kindness and respect by people of all races in Greenwich and around the United States. I have also been offended - on occasion - by people of all hues who have made bad assumptions about my abilities. That’s life. I am black. I am not a victim. My biracial children are neither victim nor oppressor. Their mother is not an oppressor.
My wife and I moved our family to Greenwich in 2020 in part because we wanted a great public education for our children. We want them to be taught how to think and not what to think. We want them to learn the facts – and just the facts – about the history of their great country. We do not want our children to be burdened by sins that their friends’ ancestors may have committed. We don’t want them to resent their African or European ancestors for any possible involvement in the slave trade or segregation. We just want them equipped to compete in the increasingly global landscape of tomorrow and to love their country. We want them to live in the present.
My high school principal was a Native American who had traced her ancestry to Pocahontas. After a class on the slave trade that she personally taught, she told me something that I’ll never forget. She said, “fight your battles.” In other words, deal with the issues of your day at the right time. Don’t live out imagined ancestral grievances and misdeeds of the past. “Fight your battles.” This is what my Native American teacher – a kind woman with more than enough to be bitter about - told me. I want this for every child of every ethnicity in our town. Let’s keep politics and controversial social theories out of children’s classrooms. Let the children fight their battles.
Thank you.