In other words, they don't entertain. They sustain

Contributed By:Dorothy Nevils

Okay. I know. You’re out of school, for the summer, or maybe for good. However, if you’ll bear with me a moment, here’s a pop quiz. See how well you do, and, if children are around, test them.

Below, in alphabetic order, is a list of twelve people, who because of who they are or what they do, are held in high esteem. Which ones do you recognize? Allen J. Bard, David Baltimore, Beyoncé, Dennis Bray, Eric Kandel, Lebron James, Eric Kandel, Lebron Marks, Lil Wayne, Payton Manning, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Donald Trump.

How many did you recognize? What did they do above the ordinary that made them standouts? Which names meant nothing to you?

Actually, most of them were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and, in order to even be considered, they had to be special, making an extraordinary contribution to humanity.

Let’s look at a few of those special people: Bard is focusing on harvesting sunlight for sustainable energy, Baltimore was one of the scientists whose work contributed to fighting HIV, Bray’s work was crucial to fighting E.coli, and Marks’s technical work contributed to treating prostate cancer. Others, like Louis Pasteur, Jonas Salk, and Marie Curie, also contributed to prolonging our lives through their work.

Who were on your list? Once upon a time there was science. It was in the little kids’ books that filled the book shelves all through grade school, then followed them to high school. It came from television on Saturday mornings when my kids were kids, then in the afternoon when school let out.

Why is it that people who directly and so crucially impact our quality of life, even life itself, are unknown to us, even dismissed as “know-nothings”? Why are they not our heroes?

The answer might be quite simple: We don’t see them. We don’t see their names. We don’t hear about them. They are, for most of us, dismissed, invisible. They’re not on television, they don’t walk the red carpet, and nobody argues about their worth when “draft season” comes around.

In other words, they don’t entertain. They sustain. They maintain. Nobody fills their “space” at a thousand, or even a hundred dollars when they do their work. They work long hours, in teams or alone, while we flip through the channels to people whose names we know and faces we recognize.

Important people important to our lives used to be important. Their names were in our school books, and kids learned them. Their pictures were on the cork board. Parents bought science kits, and, following – somewhat – the directions that came with the sets, kids, for a space in time, detected maladies and cured diseases.

Do our children still hear the stories of those to whom many of us owe our lives, or is it about other, more relevant, stuff that children read?

There’s a quote that you’ve likely heard – or read: “Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s…” An instruction much like this would be give credit to those who deserve it. That would be the ones who, while we were sleeping, made this a better world through their diligence. https://thebestschools.org/features/50-influential-scientists-world-today/

Story Posted:06/25/2017