Interviewing Dr. Ben Carson

Ben CarsonToday we participated in an exciting interview with Dr. Ben Carson, Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. Students read one or more of his books, and prepared questions based on their reading and scientific study. Some students prepared questions on the new movie Gifted Hands. The program was coordinated and sponsored by Polycom. Thank you to Polycom and Johns Hopkins for making this happen! We used the ASK format for this videoconference. We started with opening comments from Dr. Carson, rotated through the schools for the questions, and closed with final comments.

The last time we did this, I blogged some of the classes questions. Today, I’m going to share some of my favorite answers.

  • “The more rights you think you have, the easier it is for others to infringe upon them.”
  • On the importance of reading: “I realized the most successful people had accumulated a lot of knowledge.”
  • On poverty: “If you can control something, it’s nearly as bad as if something controls you.”
  • “You’re only disadvantaged if you think you are. If you have a normal brain and the ability to go to the library, you can learn anything you want to learn.”
  • “Most people live to be 80 years old. You spent the first 20 years preparing yourself. If you spend it preparing yourself, then you’ll reap the benefits. If you don’t, then you’ll reap the consequences.”
  • “There’s nothing wrong with failing, as long as you learn from it.”
  • One of the classes asked about the Carson Scholarship Fund which he explained during the session.

As usual, this program was a treat for the classes participating! We look forward to doing it again next year. We sure appreciate Dr. Carson giving up his lunch hour to talk with us!

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