Media Queen Oprah wants to be known as more than a philanthropist, media mogul and all around bad chick. Oprah wants to add teacher to her resume. Oprah opened a school in Africa a while ago and would make regular trips there to check on the progress of her all female student body. Well, she now wants to teach a class herself there at the school entitled “Life 101″. The class will be about all the stuff she wished someone had told her about how the world really works.
“Should be fun since I love to teach. And they’re like sponges,” Oprah said. “Like 12th graders everywhere, this first class is both anxious and excited about going to college. Most will be the first in their family. So it’s a very big deal for them, and they’re feeling the pressure.”
Admittedly, I am eager for the young women in Africa to not only have the opportunity to have an education but to also be taught by women around the world’s personal She-Ro. However, the inner critic in me wonders why Oprah did not decide to teach a class in her home-town of Chicago. Sure the young women there are not experiencing the exact level of depravity that the young girls in Africa are. However, there are plenty of little ghetto, underprivileged, poor, girls on the Chicago’s west side for example who would jump at the chance to have Oprah as a teacher. This young ghetto girl from Chicago’s west side, “Killer- K-Town” would have jumped at the chance herself back in her day. To be taught not only by someone who looked like me, but by someone who came from absolutely nothing and not only made it out, made her life amazing. What an inspiration that would have been.
The inner cynic in me also thinks that there is a chance that part of the reason why Oprah was more willing to teach in Africa versus Chicago’s inner city is because it SOUNDS much more grand and stupendous to say that one taught the young women in Africa versus the poor girls in Chicago. Admittedly, I can see why teaching in Africa would be considered more exciting. Yet, I sill can’t help but have loyalty to the young ghetto girls in Chicago’s west and south side who need just as much encouragement and positive female leaders as the young women in Africa.
I am not taking anything away from Oprah opening her school for girls in Africa. However, i do think that we often reach out of the country to help others that are struggling and suffering when we have our own suffering and struggling citizens in the U.S. who are being ignored.
Do You Think Oprah Should Have Considered Teaching The Young Girls In Chicago? Thoughts?
I am sick and tired of hearing people/celebrities talk about what they're doing for South Africa. Of course, practically everyone in the needs help, but to think you're doing some great by buying a house or teaching in South Africa is something I can't even intellectualize because the people who need the help most of all live in other parts of Africa. The attention and money could save thousands of lives in other parts of Africa where clean water is non-existent, children have never heard of a school, AIDS is rampant, and people of dying before they've actually had a chance to live. But, before they fly off to South Africa,they should take a long look at what is happening on the "other side of the tracks." Between 13% and 17% of U.S. citizens live below the poverty level.
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