Despite the tragic circumstances of her early years, Oprah Winfrey is the first to admit that she was smart as a child. However, it wasn’t until she moved in with Vernon Winfrey that her intelligence was used for good. In fact, as she revealed in an interview with The Washington Post back in 1986, prior to their reunion, she was headed down a dangerous path. “If I hadn’t been sent to my father, I would have gone in another direction. I could have made a good criminal,” she told the outlet.
Vernon’s approach to his daughter’s intelligence was an insistence on academic excellence. It was something he was unrelenting on, even when Oprah wasn’t getting bad grades, per se. Such was the case when she earned a number of C’s. Vernon was unimpressed with the results, to say the least. However, speaking to The Washington Post, Oprah shared that he’d explained that it was simply because he knew what she was capable of and was determined that she use her gifts for good.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the impact Vernon’s approach to education had on Oprah was a massive one. On top of changing her own life for the better, today, she’s a passionate advocate for education herself. She’s channeled that passion into The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. It’s a full-circle endeavor, too. As she wrote on her website, opening the school allowed her to be a mother to countless young girls needing inspiration.
