Change Is Possible by Patricia Clark Kenschaft

Kenschaft graduated from Swarthmore College in 1961, earning a bachelor's degree with honors in mathematics and with minors in English, philosophy, and education. This led to her mother and family becoming advocates for special education and state income taxes to better support school systems. Her brother, Bruce, was born with cognitive disabilities. The eldest of four children, Kenschaft took on a nurturing in the household. Kenschaft was born in 1940 to political activist and history teacher Bertha Francis Clark and organic chemist John Randolph Clark.

She is known as a prolific author of books on mathematics, as a founder of PRIMES, the Project for Resourceful Instruction of Mathematics in the Elementary School, and for her work for equity and diversity in mathematics. She was a professor of mathematics at Montclair State University. It is a work of great interest and an enjoyable read.Patricia Clark Kenschaft (Ma– November 20, 2022) was an American mathematician. This book is a page-turner that all mathematicians-as well as others concerned with equality-should read. The author is a skilled story-teller with good stories to tell. The book also includes five interviews with leading Latin American mathematicians, along with the results of a survey of Latino research mathematicians in the Southwest. The book concludes with a happier chapter about five black mathematicians in the early twenty-first century. These stories indicate that though some efforts were more successful than others, all of them were difficult. There are stories about African American mathematicians who were students and faculty in late nineteenth century colleges and accounts of several efforts to integrate the mathematical community in the mid-twentieth century. He helped design Washington, DC, and made the computations for almanacs that succeeded Benjamin Franklin's.

The stories of African Americans in mathematics include the efforts of Benjamin Banneker, an eighteenth century American who had three grandparents born in Africa. The author documents the rudimentary struggles to become professionals, being married without entirely giving up a career, organizing to eliminate flagrant discrimination, improving the daily treatment of women in the professional community, and the widespread efforts toward true equality. Activists in many fields will take heart at the progress made during that time.

There are five chapters about women that provide insight into the nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century, the early 1970s, the early 1990s, and 2004. Based on dozens of interviews and extensive historical research, and spiced with interesting photographs, this entertaining book relates stories about mathematicians who have defied stereotypes.

Change Is Possible by Patricia Clark Kenschaft