Ben Carson's Story
...general reinforced his stereotype that Black kids were just not as smart as the White kids. If the “two positives” (32) of Ben Carson’s life didn’t change his perspective and performance, then nothing else could have. In the middle of the fifth grade Ben Carson received an eye test that showed that his vision was so bad that he could almost qualify as handicapped. The new glasses allowed him to see the chalkboard better and improved his grades from failing to a D. The second positive was Ben Carson’s mother. After Ben got glasses, his mom formulated a plan for him to make him and his brother the best students in their class. The first step that she took was that she made Ben memorize the math tables until he knew them by heart. Afterwards she only allowed him and his brother to watch three television programs a week. Carson never even thought of misbehaving because he’d been taught all his life that it is bad to do so. The final step in Ben Carson’s mother’s plan was to make him and his brother go to the library every other day and read two books a week. As Ben Carson did all these things, his grades improved dramatically and by the time he was in seventh grade, he was at the top of his class. Even though Ben Carson improved and rose to the top of the schoolastic ladder, he still hadn’t learned how to take notes and really understand the information taught in a class. In 1969 Ben Carson was given a scholarship to Yale University. During his freshman year he had to take chemistry, in order to continue in the pre-med program. All throughout the semester, Ben Carson did not do many labs or classwork, thus, his grades suffered in that class. Every time he did that before, he studied for the final and pulled himself up to an A. Now, it seemed impossible. The night before the test, Ben Carson dreamed that a person came into a lecture hall and started to write chemistry problems and their answers on the board. When he woke up, he still remembered the problems and many answers so he worked them out and took the test. On the test, there were all the problems that he dreamed of the night before and he chuckled quietly to himself when he realized that. Ben Carson received a 97% on the test, which meant that he passed the class, allowing him to continue his journey to medical school. After that event, Ben Carson promised God that he would never put Him in a position like that again and that he would do all his classwork and homework from now on. He also promised that he would try to understand the subject as clearly as possible and not just study for the final exam. This dedication to success made Ben Carson one the best in his field, and allowed him to complete breakthrough work. In 1987, Ben Carson received a phone call from one of his colleagues saying that there was a very challenging surgery of twins in Germany. After more than 20 years of studying in school, college, medical school, and residency, Ben Carson was able to attempt such a breakthrough surgery that was never completed successfully before with both of the twins surviving. Even though he and other surgeons were trained very well, it still took over three months of preparation for the surgery. A team of the best 70 doctors, nurses, and technicians was assembled and they were trained to perform a miracle. The surgery took almost 24 hours and o...