What do Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi have in common?They make up five of the six people who have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.So who’s the sixth? That may come to surprise some.The sixth recipient of these three awards is Norman Borlaug.Most people probably haven’t heard of Borlaug, I hadn’t before there was a tiny blip about him on The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan’s blog affiliated with the Atlantic.The next questions that logically come to mind are: What did this man do, and why isn’t he well-known?To answer the first, Norman Borlaug was an agronomist and plant pathologist who sparked the Green Revolution. His work in Mexico developing new strategies to grow wheat has been cited as the reason for the seven-fold increase in the production of wheat in a 40-year period.This Green Revolution is credited with saving the world from large-scale famine and allowing for world population growth to essentially triple since its start.The second question is a bit more ambiguous.First, the Green Revolution’s benefits have been refuted by some as leading to overpopulation, thereby diluting some of the support for Dr. Borlaug.Another more controversial reason can be found in neighboring Texas.Texas is one of the largest markets for school textbooks, giving it sway over the material included not only in Texas schools but also in schools around the country.The Texas Board of Education is the elected 15-member group that decides the curriculum and appropriate textbook content for Texas schools.Republicans dominate the board, not surprisingly considering the Republican dominance of Texas. But seven of the members have formed an ultra-conservative voting bloc in attempts to reshape the education policy of Texas — and thereby the rest of the country.According to Religion Dispatches, some of the more recent controversial proposals include the exclusion of Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez and Ann Hutchinson from social studies textbooks.According to this online magazine, one of the appointed academic experts for the board, Rev. Peter Marshall, has called for Hutchinson’s exclusion because she “didn’t accomplish anything except getting herself exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for making trouble.”Yet it’s hardly surprising such contemptible hate speech and slander came from a man who also claims divine wrath caused Hurricane Katrina and strives to essentially turn the U.S. into a theocracy.Luckily, elections this past week have hurt the conservative bloc that holds court over the board. One of their leaders retired, while another lost the Republican primary to a more moderate Republican, whittling down the seven member ultra-conservative bloc to six.Nevertheless, the damage this board has done to the nation’s schoolchildren is immeasurable.To teach President Reagan’s infallibility instead of Hutchinson’s importance or to teach limited government based on Christian traditions as fact is, at best, willfully ignorant and, at worst, morally reprehensible.America’s schoolchildren will likely never know Norman Borlaug’s impact, nor will they likely hear about Denham Fouts.Fouts was the arguably the world’s most influential “kept man.” According to Butt Magazine, Fouts was discovered working in his father’s Jacksonville bakery by a German baron in the ’20s and was thereafter linked romantically to King Paul of Greece, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, Margarine heir Peter Watson, Lord Tredegar Evan Morgan and the Shah of Iran.Fouts isn’t the best role model. He was promiscuous, manipulative and addicted to drugs.The story here is about human potential. Truman Capote said “had Denham Fouts yielded to Hitler’s advances, there would have been no World War II.”The stories of Borlaug and Fouts likely won’t be taught in America’s schools.But if these stories aid reason and logic in taking hold of America’s education system, then maybe American’s most famous individuals you have never heard of won’t be so lost after all.Stephen Schmitz is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from The Woodlands, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_sschmitz.—————Contact Stephen Schmitz at [email protected]