Mail Call

Renuka Panigrahy

Ames, Iowa

Oprah's New African Academy As a high-school teacher, I'm all too familiar with Oprah Winfrey's observation that in the United States--where children can attend school free of charge--many students don't appreciate what they have ("Oprah Goes to School," Jan. 8). She says she became frustrated visiting inner-city schools because "the sense that you need to learn just isn't there," and because students feel they need or want iPods and sneakers instead. However, she contributes to this very attitude with every consumer gift giveaway on her show and by providing students in her new academy with a beauty salon, yoga studio, extra-large closets, indoor and outdoor theaters, and hundreds of pieces of tribal art. To inner-city students, their iPods might be just as beautiful as Winfrey's tribal art. The $40 million she spent on this new school can buy a lot of things, but it won't buy beauty in the form of insight, reflection and meaning. Perhaps South African students were telling Winfrey this in their expressed desire for school uniforms, not iPods and sneakers.

Margaret M. Light

Carpinteria, Calif.

As a 10th grader, I don't believe there is any room for debate regarding Oprah Winfrey's kindness and generosity in her desire to do something that will have an immediate and long-lasting effect on young girls who for so long have had next to nothing. The black female population in South Africa has historically faced humiliation and torture that is beyond my understanding, so Winfrey's decision to make this new school an all-girls' academy also makes perfectly good sense. People have criticized the great expense of the project, the "200-thread-count sheets" and the pleated uniforms that the girls will wear. In the end what matters is that Winfrey's actions might help spur other wealthy individuals around the world to reach into their pockets and spend on behalf of all the children in South Africa.