Ben Carson

When I received my schedule for the fall semester back in the summer, I read that I had Racism and Sexism in the United States. I was so angry when I read that. Pretty much I thought they were going to teach us what they've been teaching us since we were in kindergarten, that it was wrong to pre-judge and every one is human no matter what race, color, or religion they are. Well I have to admit that although that is the underlying message of the class that is not at all what is being taught to me two days a week. What is going on in this class is we are being taught what we weren't taught back in high school. I've come to realize that I have such a narrow idea and mind for what is going on in this country and all over the world. I see that every time we are sitting in class and the professor asks us do you know about so and so or have you ever heard of this, we just sit there in silence and stare at her blankly because we have no idea what she is talking about. Honestly that is not our fault. We are taught not to think for ourselves but to take what is taught to us and live by it and not question any of it. In this class we are told to think for ourselves and for the first time in my life I was encouraged to ask questions and think about what was going on. Never in my whole life was I encouraged to ask a teacher why or how? Now I can and I am starting to do that.

My whole life I have always wanted to be a doctor, ever since I was a little girl. I never wanted to be a princess or a ballerina I wanted to be a doctor and save lives. Yet again our professor asked us one day in class if we had ever heard of Ben Carson, again all of us said no. Why haven't we heard of him? He is an amazing man. Not only a man but also an African American male. Not that the color of his skin makes any difference, but once a year ever since I've been in school we've had a school wide celebration of African American History Month and not once was he mentioned to me. Sure I heard of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the obvious ones but why not him? Of all the stories I heard of heroes in my whole life his story I enjoyed reading about the most. His book I finished in two days. I was mad when I was interrupted while I was reading his book and also mad when people would ask me who is Ben Carson? Meanwhile just a week ago I've never heard of the man, but everyone should! My mother is a nurse and I called her up after I finished the book ranting and raving over how wonderful this man was and how smart and gifted he is, and she said to me, who are you talking about? I'll tell you who I'm talking about, his name is Ben Carson and this is a little bit about him.

Ben Carson grew up in a difficult time for any poor family in the United States, but he was also an African American. He was picked on sometimes by children and not accepted because of his skin color. In his book in one chapter it tells us how he finally got to play with some older neighborhood children while they were playing a game of football. Carson was so athletic and fast that he did better than everyone there. He was so excited to be apart of the kids in his neighborhood, and then they told him that he couldn't come back and play. It was obvious that they were jealous of his athletic ability, but needless to say Carson never went back and played with them.

Carson's mother was a very strong woman. She had such a big heart. She didn't have much education in fact at most all she finished was the third grade. She married very young and got divorced to her husband who behind he back started another family. A few times in the story she had to leave the boys with their aunt and uncle while she went away to a psychiatric ward to get help. The boys never knew where she was going until they got older. What a strong and admirable woman she was, to never let her feelings get in the way of parenting. She wanted her boys to succeed in life. Not only succeed but also do the best they could do. She only allowed them to watch two TV programs a week and they weren't allowed outside to play after school until all their work was done. She made them write and write, meanwhile she could barley read and write, that's quite interesting. Yet the boys never questioned her authority. Carson chose to watch the College Bowl as one of his programs where he would learn a lot of interesting facts. The College Bowl helped him decide what college he was going to go to when that time came.

When Ben was in fifth grade he was doing really bad. He was getting zeros on all of his tests, and the children were not nice about it at all they would tease him all the time telling him he was stupid. Finally, they figured out that Ben needed glasses, that his vision was so bad that he was almost considered handicapped. After Ben got his glasses he started