After ending her long-running daytime television talk show, Oprah Winfrey hasn’t exactly been idle. Instead, she’s been devoting much of her time to the school she opened in South Africa, and she’s stated in a letter to her fans that she plans to return this fall to teach a ‘Life 101’ class. Of course, this isn’t the same as teaching an academic subject, but I can admire that Oprah’s doing some real footwork at her school instead of, you know, pulling a Madonna by merely throwing money at the cause (i.e., that fraud-tinged “Raising Malawi” charity), expecting things to happen, and then being all surprised when it falls apart. Nope, that’s not happening in this instance; and while Oprah will undoubtedly be housed in a luxury villa during her fall stay, she’s at least putting her mouth where her money is, so to speak.

Oprah Winfrey is back in the USA after spending time with her “girls” at the school she opened in South Africa, but don’t fear, ladies, Miss O will be returning soon in the role of teacher.

“They were all stressed for tests, but doing fine,” Oprah emailed fans — including yours truly — about her students. “No major crisis this trip. I love being with them and talking to them about all things important. When I’m there I’m talking from the time I get up till I go to bed, about EVERYTHING teenage girls are going through. It’s the same all over the world.”

Oprah revealed that she would be returning this fall to teach a class called “It’s Life 101” 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.”

Adding that there is nothing like leaving the USA to get a deeper appreciation of the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.

“When Chris Rock was last on the show he said, ‘real wealth is having options.’ I thought that was pretty profound,” Oprah says. “I now stress to my girls that education prepares you to have options. Without it you have none. Just took a walk around the neighborhood watching sprinklers on the back lawn … (I love sprinklers) Made me think about the red dirt road I traveled from Mississippi (no sprinklers) to the here and now … And how that journey could have only been possible in the USA.”

[From Popeater]

Sometimes, I find Oprah’s shtick a bit too sanctimonious but, all things considered, she’s really putting good things out there in the world, and I hope she follows this pattern throughout her post-daytime television era. It’s easy to criticize her for living in her own sort of wealth-induced bubble, but it really doesn’t work any benefit to complain about what she does do in terms of charitable purposes. Yes, Oprah has a self-inflated picture of her own importance, but she does a lot more with her celebrity than any other number of examples.

Here’s another photo of Oprah in May as she was inducted into the Illinois Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame (and yes, that’s Roger Ebert alongside her) as well as a picture from last year’s Walk For A Better Life in NYC.

Photos courtesy of Fame