Gifted Hands Ben Carson Report By: Alicia Bernabe 9/15/08 Photo credit

Early Life Ben Carson was born on September 18, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother Sonya had dropped out of school in the third grade, and married when she was only 13. He was only eight when his parents divorced. His father had a other wife and children. His mother was left to raise him and his older brother on her own. She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs to provide for her two boys. Several months later their mother had no financial resources to fall back on, she knew she could not keep up the expenses of living in their house so they packed and left the house and moved away to Boston. In fifth grade Ben was at the bottom of his class. The school gave Ben an eye exam. The school gave him free glasses and so after his grades were showing improvement. His grades were improving slowly and his mother knew that they can do much better. She set the rule that Ben and Curtis can only watch 3 TV shows a week and they have to go to the library and read two books a week. At first he didn’t like the idea but he soon started to like it and he loved reading books.

Chapter 1 In chapter one of Gifted Hands, Ben Cason’s dad was leaving the family. His mom found out that he had a second wife and other children. Ben was only eight years old so he didn’t understand why he was leaving. His mother, Sonya Carson, tried to make him understand. His dad didn’t give them money to support them or anything. Ben and Curtis didn’t ask for anything like toys or candy cause he knew it hurt his mom to say that they can't afford it.

Chapter 2 In chapter 2, Curtis gave his mother a letter they gave him at school. It was about Curtis being sent to a vocational-type curriculum class. So the next day she went to the school, went straight up to the counselor woman and said that he will not go to any vocational courses. So when she got home she told Curtis that he is no longer in that class, he is in college prep courses. “I’m going away for a few days,” Sonya Caron said many months after their dad left them. “To visit relatives.” The boys were to stay with the neighbors. Sonya left for a few days. Later, several months later, there were no financial resources to fall back on, she knew she could not keep up the expenses of living in their house so they packed and left the house and moved away to Boston.

Chapter 3 “You look tired,” Ben said one evening when Sonya walked into their new apartment. She asked him what he learned in school. She always did. Sonya was always concerned about her son’s education. Weeks and months past and Sonya decided to go back to their old house. “We may not be able to afford it, but we’ll make it.” She said. Not a day past that Sonya didn’t talk about going home. Ben was at the bottom of his class. He as teased by everyone in his class. On his test he failed all of them.

Evaluation Beautiful slides. I wish you could have completed the project. When we do another project, write down what you are going to do before you go to the lab. You can save time. You will want to include some pictures and show that you can hyperlink. Perhaps you could shorten the writing and add more slides.