Originally Posted by Chubz

Yeah...30 kids in a classroom isn't that much, especially in urban areas. It's to be expected. The complaint about there being more kids than teachers is always being flung around, because the teachers unions use it to try and get some more money. They always say "oh, well back in the day there were never that many kids in the schools." Well, depending on where you lived, there has been little variation in number of students. My father was from Britain, and when he went to school (back in the 50's-60's) he had just as many kids in his class as we do now over here in BC, (the population being obviously smaller than in London). The main difference was that if someone got out of hand back in the 50's/60's, they got a whack, which generally kept them quiet. Now if the kid gets out of hand, the teacher can't do anything...so while the class size has remained the same, the way the class is run is done completely differently, so it feels like you have 60 kids rather than 30. So then they say "oh, class size has increased" when in most areas it hasn't. It's remained fairly the same (this isn't true as a whole, I'm sure there's areas where class size has increased quite a lot....but the BC Teachers Union is making the same claims over here, when in fact there has been no real surge in size).

As for Oprah, yes I think it was good she did that. Education is supposed to be provided by the Government, and North America is not running out of money anytime soon. Poor schooling over here is a matter of politics and governance, and if Oprah opened a school in the states, she'd have to give it to state authorities, or make it a private school. But she's not opening a private school, she's opening one for the public.

The government infrastructure is absolutely poor over in South Africa, so education is not guaranteed as a public right. The government itself can't afford to open new schools, and the one that is being opened will more than likely be run by a private organization, run for the public. Access to education in these areas is nigh impossible because of the economic conditions. In North America however, access to education is easily attainable as the government is forced to provide the education (however, to what degree the school recieves funding and how much money it gets are a different matter).

It's a completely different ball game over in South Africa, so anyone who complains aboot Oprah opening up the school probably hasn't read a book on conditions in South Africa, or else they'd keep quiet.

The one thing I don't really like though, is that Oprah doesn't do this stuff unless cameras are recording and people are taking pictures. Oprah's charity work is really a mass publicity stunt, so I have a problem taking her charity as being whole-hearted. I'd like to see information of her shelling out a couple million as an anonomous donation,without making herself look like some charity-God. Of course, you could argue that by making this stuff public she is bringing 'awareness' about a certain subject. But I still don't buy all of it as being pure-hearted charity.

Like...for example, I saw one show where she had a bunch of people who had lost their houses in Katrina come to the show to apply to have Oprah build them a house...of course they get the cameras rolling, and she comes out on stage and is like "guess what ya'll? I'm gonna build ALL of you houses!" and then everyone started crying. Well, yeah, nice try at getting ratings Oprah...You can't say that THAT was trying to bring 'awareness' about Katrina....it freakin happened right in America's backyard. If you have to bring awareness about a subject like that to a country's OWN people, then the citizens of that country have a big problem which even Oprah can't solve. I mean, that show was publicity, publicity, publicity. She could still help people without airing herself writing a cheque on tv, and the help would seem more genuine.

If she needs to show herself writing cheques on TV to motivate people, then the cause is already a lost one. "Hey, Oprah has millions of dollars to spend! Let's be like Oprah and send some of our money!" Like...sure...for a good cause and everything, but if I was some starving kid from Ethiopia, and received some charity money from people who sent it just because they saw Oprah send money, I'd use their charity money to buy a plane ticket, find where they live, and then kill them for being so ignorant that the only way they know of the injustices of the world is by seeing Oprah talk about it.

Ugh...I'm gonna stop now....

Originally Posted by Kasai

Lol. You rerally surprised me with this post. Oprah? Publicity-whore? I can hardly believe that. She's a woman with the wealth and she shares it. Just because she doesnt do it in private? Means nothing. The fact is, that she does it. What more can you ask of someone? She doesnt have to gives this unfortunate people anything of hers. Because there have been people who've came from worse and made it to where she is. But the fact is, that she does.

However, I do agree with you about the people donating because they see Oprah donating. That's wrong and donating should come from the heart.

Originally Posted by PsiKnot

Ok well it seems your all in agreeance here in the debate forum. so I'll take the crappy "Oprah sucks" side.

Yes schools are overcrowded and falling apart in many areas but they have to be fixed with tax money, yeah money that the government takes from you. You see when Oprah takes her America hating publicity circus to Africa to spend all her money, that she got from us Americans, on improving the youth of a desperate nation, she is slapping us in the face. Can't you see it she says "I'll take your American money and give it to Africa and then you'll have to pay even more taxes cause I wont fix your stuff cause Africans are better than you!" Then when she eventually gets all our money into Africa and all the kids are getting better educations than ours she will become Empress of Africa and destroy us all. So Watch out all you Empress Oprah lovers, she will not sleep, she will not eat (well maybe a bit), she will not stop untill your all dead. Then She'll do a make over on your house and move African kids into it.

P.S. I'm sorry Oprah.

Originally Posted by PsiKnot

Ok well it seems your all in agreeance here in the debate forum. so I'll take the crappy "Oprah sucks" side.

Yes schools are overcrowded and falling apart in many areas but they have to be fixed with tax money, yeah money that the government takes from you. You see when Oprah takes her America hating publicity circus to Africa to spend all her money, that she got from us Americans, on improving the youth of a desperate nation, she is slapping us in the face. Can't you see it she says "I'll take your American money and give it to Africa and then you'll have to pay even more taxes cause I wont fix your stuff cause Africans are better than you!" Then when she eventually gets all our money into Africa and all the kids are getting better educations than ours she will become Empress of Africa and destroy us all. So Watch out all you Empress Oprah lovers, she will not sleep, she will not eat (well maybe a bit), she will not stop untill your all dead. Then She'll do a make over on your house and move African kids into it.

P.S. I'm sorry Oprah.

Originally Posted by PsiKnot

Sorry its hard, I like Oprah. I'll try harder.

Ever wonder where Oprah helps the most? Poor, urban, predominantly black areas. Now she's spending money in Africa rather than here in the states. I pose a question to you all. Is Oprah racist? As an African-American woman is she being more African than American? There are many places here in the states that could really use the kind of help that she only seems to offer to people of her own ethnicity. Southern California's public schools are almost all criticly overcrowded but they receive no help because they are mostly hispanic. Middleton Idaho, a very poor farm and migrant worker town just had both its junior high and high school burn to the ground, will they receive help? No, because the communtiy is less than 1% black. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that Oprah doesn't help people that aren't black she just doesn't help people that don't live in areas with at least a high percent of black people.