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Oprah just donated $365,000 to a small private school Atlanta. Ron Clark Academy, founded in 2007, is innovative in its design and in the website’s own words, uses “out of the box” teaching methods. Built in a very poor neighborhood of Atlanta, there are only 80 students, who rely mainly on donations to fund their $14,000 a year tuition. Oprah’s donation could fund the tuition for up to 26 students.
The large donation is not out of the blue. Clark has been a guest on Oprah’s show twice, once in 2000 when he won the “Disney American Teacher of the Year” award, and then again last year when his book, The Essential 55, became a New York Times best-seller.
The school has also recently been in the news for its music-led teaching methods, including a cute rap by students “You can vote however you like,” based on the song “Whatever you like” by T.I., that became an Internet sensation:
Clark and his students became overnight stars during the presidential election when a video of the students performing a political rap they wrote grabbed the public’s attention on YouTube. The children ended up performing the rap, called “Vote However U Like,” on national TV shows including CNN and BET.
Teachers at the school frequently use rapping, dancing and drumming to help students learn.
Clark, who taught in one of New York City’s toughest schools and wrote the best-selling teaching book “The Essential 55,” opened the school last year with proceeds from his book and private donations.
Nearly all of its 80 students are from middle- and low-income households. Parents pay a small part of the tuition and the rest is paid by donors.
[from The Daily Mail]
Oprah is still stinging from the girl’s school in Africa debacle, during which critics complained that she wasn’t doing enough for American schools. The donation to Ron Clark Academy was made through Oprah’s foundation, which in 2008 gave a total of $4 million to schools in need.
We haven’t heard much about the other schools Oprah donated to, but there are several possible reasons for that. Ron Clark is skilled at getting publicity. He’s been on Oprah twice and his school has received plenty of attention – the fact that the school has survived on donations alone is proof of his media-savvy.
Additionally, this school is highly unusual and innovative in its teaching style, which demands some attention in and of itself. It’s easier to write a story about an exceptional school where kids are inspired than a donation to a school where the students are struggling.
Oprah Winfrey is shown on 12/5/08. Credit: WENN
Written by SamHill
Posted in Good Causes, Oprah
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15 Responses to “Oprah donates $365,000 to inner-city Atlanta school”
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Pocket change. Her show spends more than that on her private buffet table. She’s a b*lli*na*re, that’s not even an hour’s worth of interest on her daily accrued wealth. She might was well toss coins to the peasantry from her gold-covered carriage like the nobility in France used to do before the revolution..
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…yeah, but at least the French public came up with a solution for those people.
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Well at least it’s better than nothing. I’m not an Oprah-stan and find her obnoxious on her talk show but it kills me that people still complain when she’s giving. It’s like she’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. I guess that is the price she has to pay for her obnoxiousness and overexposure
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That’s probably about the size donation they’re able to handle, and sounds like it will directly affect people’s lives. Not sure why that’s a basis for complaining about her actions.
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Atlanta is an awesome city, I am glad she helped the inner city too.
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Are you serious vdantev?
Yikes, I would hate to be on your birthday party, when you calculate everyone’s net income to check if they spent enough on your gift.
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And I agree with Baholicious. Why can’t Oprah come up with a permanent solution for all the poor schools in America?
I mean, it’s not like the US has or ever will have a competent government to solve these issues. It should all be Oprahs responsibility!
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Are you serious vdantev?
Yes I am, I’m never one to be impressed by the crumbs the rich and powerful toss to us regular folk, when it’s obvious they can be doing more and it wouldn’t affect their cash-flow one iota. And I don’t think of funding a school as some sort of ‘gift’, thank you very much. The education of children is an obligation, not an indulgence- but that’s the difference in our mindsets.
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Ron Clark made a speech a few years ago to a group of North Carolina education majors I was a part of. He promised that each student at his school will have visited all seven continents by the time they graduate, which made me extremely impressed.
Then he told an anecdote about how he locked himself into a Dunkin Donuts oven while it was on and had to be rescued by the police. His excuse? He was playing hide and seek with a coworker who himself got stuck in the drivethru window.
Frankly, the fact that this man survives on a day-to-day basis is the real miracle.
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This from the same cowish woman that threw a tantrum about spoilt American children and them only wanting tennis shoes and electronic gizmos?
My husband is an NCO in the US military. The witch gave less than 1% of her income to charity. We give almost 20% of our’s. Yet we don’t ask for fawning, tv shows, shoes, or plagiarized books. People wonder why no one likes Oprah – um OPRAH?
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I applaud her for doing anything at all.
In a capitalistic state like the US, where it’s usually every person for himself, this is a very socialistic gesture!
I’m not necessarily dissing the States for being capitalistic — I quite agree with Ayn Rand’s view on things most of the time…
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she’s worth 1 billion and just donated that amount when a certain celebrity who gave 1/3 of her income to charity is being crucified as being a publicity hound when her donations was announced by organizations she gave to just like O.
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vdantev,
You are right, the education of children is an obligation, not an indulgence. This is why everyone pays taxes.
Since you seem to find it so important, may I assume that you regularly donate a large amount of your paycheck to charity?
I get that you are not impressed and that’s fine, I’m not impressed by this story either. I don’t even like Oprah that much. But next to Bill Gates she is one of the biggest philantropists in a world where most rich people don’t even want to pay their taxes.
If you really want to get pissed about something, there is enough going on in the world to get exited about. But if you really want to bash Oprah for donating money, you should include in your rant that she donated to a private school, not a public one.
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Jeane, I was referring to the guillotine
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Oh
Well, I agree that would solve many issues!
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