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The Educational Transformation of Ben Carson
Brain
Surgeon
Benjamin
Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother Sonya had
dropped out of school in the third grade, and married when
she was only 13. When Benjamin Carson was only eight, his
parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin
and his older brother Curtis on her own. She worked at two,
sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys.
Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind
in school. In fifth grade, Carson was at the bottom of his
class. His classmates called him "dummy" and he
developed a violent, uncontrollable temper.
When Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined
to turn her sons' lives around. She sharply limited the
boys' television watching and refused to let them outside
to play until they had finished their homework each day.
She required them to read two library books a week and to
give her written reports on their reading even though, with
her own poor education, she could barely read what they
had written.
Within a few weeks, Carson astonished his classmates by
identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to class.
He recognized them from one of the books he had read. "It
was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid,"
he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates
with his newfound knowledge and within a year he was at
the top of his class.
The hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him, and he began
to read voraciously on all subjects. He determined to become
a physician, and he learned to control the violent temper
that still threatened his future. After graduating with
honors from his high school, he attended Yale University,
where he earned a degree in Psychology.
From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University
of Michigan, where his interest shifted from psychiatry
to neurosurgery. His excellent hand-eye coordination and
three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon.
After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at
the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. At
age 32, he became the hospital's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.
In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to
separate a pair of Siamese twins. The Binder twins were
born joined at the back of the head. Operations to separate
twins joined in this way had always failed, resulting in
the death of one or both of the infants. Carson agreed to
undertake the operation. A 70-member surgical team, led
by Dr. Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins
were successfully separated and can now survive independently.
Carson's other surgical innovations have included the first
intra-uterine procedure to relieve pressure on the brain
of a hydrocephalic fetal twin, and a hemispherectomy, in
which an infant suffering from uncontrollable seizures has
half of its brain removed. This stops the seizures, and
the remaining half of the brain actually compensates for
the missing hemisphere.
In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Carson is in constant
demand as a public speaker, and devotes much of his time
to meeting with groups of young people. In 2008, the White
House announced that Benjamin Carson would receive the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Dr. Carson's books include a memoir, Gifted Hands, and a
motivational book, Think Big. Carson says the letters of
"Think Big" stand for the following:
Talent: Our Creator has endowed all of us not just with
the ability to sing, dance or throw a ball, but with intellectual
talent. Start getting in touch with that part of you that
is intellectual and develop that, and think of careers that
will allow you to use that.
Honesty: If you lead a clean and honest life, you don't
put skeletons in the closet. If you put skeletons in the
closet, they definitely will come back just when you don't
want to see them and ruin your life.
Insight: It comes from people who have already gone where
you're trying to go. Learn from their triumphs and their
mistakes.
Nice: If you're nice to people, then once they get over
the suspicion of why you're being nice, they will be nice
to you.
Knowledge: It makes you into a more valuable person. The
more knowledge you have, the more people need you. It's
an interesting phenomenon, but when people need you, they
pay you, so you'll be okay in life.
Books: They are the mechanism for obtaining knowledge, as
opposed to television.
In-Depth Learning: Learn for the sake of knowledge and understanding,
rather than for the sake of impressing people or taking
a test.
God: Never get too big for Him.
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