More inspiration from Martin Luther King, especially if you haven’t achieved much yet

January 20, 2014 by Joshua
in Blog, Education, Freedom, Leadership

Perhaps the best honor one person can give another is to understand them and continue their legacy. I’m writing today’s post to suggest you can do that with Martin Luther King more than you think.

Many people believe Einstein got bad grades, but I understand he didn’t.

Martin Luther King, Jr got bad grades.

He started graduate school at a school near Philadelphia called Crozer. Note among his grades — the grades of one of the premier public speakers I’ve heard of — he got a C in Public Speaking one term and a C+ in another term. He also got a C+ in Church Music and a C- in another class.

mlk_crozer_gradesNow look at his college grades. They are hard to read, but you’ll see plenty of C’s, including in classes called Language and Thinking, Church Thinking, and Composition and Reading. He also got a D in French. (Oddly, whoever wrote his transcript spelled Shakespeare wrong).

Can you imagine being the teacher who gave the guy who gave the I Have a Dream speech a C in Language or Composition?

Martin Luther King, Jr's college gradesMy point is not to take Martin Luther King down a notch, but to point out how much anyone is capable of, even after getting low grades. You can keep learning and developing skills after school.

I doubt I can write MLK’s goals better than anyone else, but I believe he wanted everyone to be able to reach their potential no matter what anyone else or any institutions said. I think he’s a better example of this than most people think.

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