What a happy holiday for some Atlanta-area students!
The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta got the attention of the nation when the video above of its students performing an election rap they wrote appeared on YouTube.
Teachers at the school are known to use rapping, dancing and drumming to help students learn.
Headmaster Clark, who taught in one of New York City's toughest schools and wrote the best-selling teaching book The Essential 55, opened the ATL 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. It costs approximately $14,000 to educate each student.
Well, the generous Oprah Winfrey can be listed as one of the school's benefactors.
On Wednesday, Clark revealed to his students that Super O gifted the school $365,000!!
"We teach school all day and fundraise at night," said Clark. "To have an unsolicited gift come like that is incredible."
When Clark shared the news with the school community, the children, parents and teachers reportedly erupted in deafening cheers!
The donation will likely go to scholarships for students.
It's enough to pay for roughly 26 children to attend the school for one year!
In a letter that accompanied the check, Winfrey calls Clark a role model and applauds the "profound difference you're making with your passion for teaching."
The check was issued by the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, which gave $4 million to educational programs in 2008.
Oprah rules!
