Hi, I'm wondering how Thomas Edison became canonized in the American consciousness to the point that he's part of a standard elementary school curriculum. Why teach children about him over all the other inventors and/or businessmen in American history?
He wasn't just an inventor, he was one of the most prolific inventors in human history. He still holds 1,093 patents. His inventions were so successful he started mass producing them, and he created the first industrial research laboratory to turn out even more products for consumers.
American textbooks cover him for the same reasons other nations' textbooks cover other "Renaissance Men" (English textbooks cover Newton, or Italian textbooks cover Leonardo da Vinci, etc). Also, American textbooks cover plenty of other inventors/businessmen (Henry Ford, Eli Whitney, the Wright Bros, etc).