Ben Carson Calls Out the 'Dumbest Kid in Class'

Republican Presidential hopeful Ben Carson attempted at a 500-person rally, including 
fifth-graders, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, asking, “Who’s the worst student?” turned into a jab when a bunch of the students pointed their fingers at one red-faced 10-year-old. 

“I figured people would be pointing around to all different people who they didn’t like,” Carson, a father of three, told the Des Moines Register about the incident at the Isaac Newton Christian Academy gym on Thursday. And indeed Carson continued speaking at the rally as if many had been singled out. “Well, let me tell you, if you had asked that question in my classroom, there would have been no doubt,” the self-described “horrible student” said launching into a motivational speech about how he transformed into a regarded neuroscientist.

 The boy — whom Carson identified as Seth in a tweet, declaring, “This young man will go on to do great things in life,” — laughed it off and told reporters that his feelings weren’t hurt by the call-out. 
Yet Seth’s mom, Robin Blackford, later admitted to the Des Moines Register, “As a mother, it kind of saddens me that he would be pointed out like that. Knowing Seth, I think he’d take it in stride. … He’s very well-liked by all the students.” 

Carson also met with the boy after the speech for a pep talk. “You know what we want from you right?” he asked the 10-year-old. “You’re going to be a neurosurgeon, OK? But all you have to do is, to turn it around: Read. I just started reading, I got to the point where it was my favorite thing in life, and it didn’t take long before I knew more than all of those people who said I was dumb.”