Control a person’s thinking & you don’t have to worry about his or her actions.

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have to worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

The above words were written by Carter Godwin Woodson, the son of former slaves who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was in the unique position of being taught by people from polar opposite realities. At one extreme, he had learned from parents who had lived as creatures who were bought and sold in America, while at the other, he was taught by the greatest minds in Americas’ greatest university.

Carter Godwin Woodson

(December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950)

He was the son of former slaves and could not regularly attend school, so through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17. Wanting more education, Carter went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling.

In 1895, at the age of 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught at Winona in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1903 by taking classes part-time between 1901 and 1903. Later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was awarded an A.B. and A.M. in 1908. He was a member of the first black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi. He completed his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912.

After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in public schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor, where he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Woodson was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history.

Take a few seconds to consider the answers to the following questions:

(1) What have I done in my life?

(2) Where do I feel I should go and belong?

(3) Where do I feel I shouldn't go and don't belong?

(4) What is in my mind that makes we feel like this?

Your mind is the most valuable and powerful part of your body. Guard it & protect it -- and if you are a parent -- guard the minds of your children and remember your special role as their most trusted teacher.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson