Jan Matzeliger

The attached picture is from an Algebra textbook. I was helping a middle school student over the weekend.

At first, I got very curious. Why would you see this story in a mathematics textbook?

It said, “Jan Matzeliger (1852–1889) immigrated to the United States and worked in a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts”.

This is one such story that should have completely changed the view on immigrants, and persons of color, a long time ago. But it didn’t!

Today’s colorful textbooks make a conscious effort to bring in history, inventions, and diversity topics like this. But school teachers, in their sincere effort to keep up with classwork and completing the syllabus for dozens of students in the class, are unable to use these opportunities effectively.

“Going above and beyond is a challenge posed by circumstances”, one teacher said, “As we struggle to keep up with what’s adequate and how to deliver at least the bare minimum”

A major opportunity to rebuild our racial relations, understanding immigrants, and understanding each other from different backgrounds early on is sadly lost.

I am using Mathematics textbook as a prime example here, this is true for other subjects as well. The sad aspect is many students don’t read mathematics textbooks, and they do not know what they are missing, thereby the community is missing it as a whole. Having the right content is essential and even more important is to make sure the content is used effectively.

This is where, I believe, our education system is failing on reforms. What’s in print is not widely read or practiced.

I continued my research on Matzeliger. His work has made the creation of shoes easier and the cost of shoes 50% down across the United States. Another remarkable example that shows how immigration helped America to become the country it is today. Yet, a description of him says this: because of the color of his skin, he was not mentioned in the history books until recently.

I asked a few students who completed this exact textbook and passed this Algebra course, about Jan Matzeliger.

They never heard about that name nor saw the attached from their textbook they studied a complete school year!

“My teacher didn’t tell me to read that” was the standard answer. And these levels of additional details won’t appear in tests or grades, so why would they take the extra effort.

I always thought there is something fundamentally wrong the way the US education system has performed on reforms.

But textbooks showed rightful efforts were on the way, in print everywhere.

Except that nobody reads it.

That was the only missing component in my research.

Tell your kids to read textbooks, page by page, word by word, and have them change our world. Cross over to side notes like these in textbooks, and use them as an opportunity to talk about racial relations, the seed for changing the world they live in. Or scientific inventions. Or need to find a cure for a disease. The value of vaccines. The content is right there in these books spread across.

I help students as much as I could, in the weekends. I constantly advise them and their parents that today’s challenge in learning could be turned into an advantage. Change the way you learn, learn deeper. Learn broader. Be independent learners.

And such sadness, a talent like Jan Matzeliger lived only for 36years.

Tuberculosis took that precious life.

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