“There is no job more important than parenting.”

This is the statement of Dr. Benjamin Carson in his This I Believe essay on National Public Radio. He credits his mother—a domestic with only a third-grade education—as the source of the life-changing influence he has been able to have on the lives of many. She brought home from work the observation that successful people spent more time reading than watching television. She applied the observation in her home. Carson says, “Although we had no money, between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, do anything, and be anybody.”

Hopefully I’ll remember Dr. Benjamin Carson and his mother the next time I reach for the remote control.