Oprah's new school is being critized as a prison, far to strict for the young ladies enrolled there.
An article in the South Africa Times quoted some parents as saying their daughters were not allowed "treats", that they couldn't phone out any old time they felt like it, that some parents had to wait up to thirty minutes at the gate to get clearance to enter.
Hmmm.
What I have seen and heard of Oprah's school is that she is trying to take a few very lucky young girls and give them the opportunity for education and success. Many of those girls--before enrollment--had no chance whatever in a society where they have little or no chance at self-determination , had no idea whatever of discipline or organization, or even the concept of regulating "treats" as a healthy habit.
Oprah is taking a few young girls out of an enviornment of hopelessness and abuse and offering them a way out of an AIDS doomed society*. To be successful, these girls do need a bit of control over their actions and activites, and the rules being complained about by the parents are not much different than regulations in any private school--with minimun standards--anywhere.
At least that's my take on Oprah's schools. Time will--or course--tell, but for now I'm on Oprah's side in her attempt to salvage a few young girls... with her own money and effort, something incredibly rare in today's world.
*If you question this statement, just look up the stats on Africa's looming disaster being visited on them by HIV/AIDS. It's horrbile.
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