Edwin Abbott's Flatlands

Words: 1000
Pages: 4

Flatlands is a novel by Edwin Abbott. It uses mathematics and social classes to challenge the social order we see in our society. I am an avid reader, but I lack the math skills and perspective necessary to really understand this book. This book was a little bit difficult for me to grasp, but admittedly, but it was interesting. As much as I struggled with it, Flatlands broadened the way I think about society, math and dimension. The way the society is set up in the books, is not unlike the society that we live in. While reading Abbott’s work, it was easy to be affronted by the blunt statements that the main character made, but after thinking on it more I realized that I live in a world like this every single day without being offended, when …show more content…
Every student learns differently, so whether that is visual learning, kinesthetic learning, or auditory learning. While some lessons lend themselves to being presented visually or otherwise, I believe that it is important to incorporate each style of learning as much as possible. Changing the way students learn keeps them on their toes and excited to start a new day. This book, especially the beginning, would be a great tool to teach sides and shapes to an elementary school class. I would be able to utilize the social classes displayed in this book as a way to teach the students how to count the sides of a shape. If students were able to relate the number of sides to a social standing, then they may be able to remember shapes better. It would become more than just a number, it would give these shapes a personality and make them into a sort of character. Students could relate to the shapes. If a student was taught that an isosceles triangle has two equal sides, they may forget this like I did. On the other hand, if a student is taught an isosceles triangle has two equal sides, and they are soldiers, they may be able to remember that better because it is something they had previous knowledge of. Another example could be if mom or dad is a doctor or a lawyer. I could relate the squares in the book to their parents, explaining to them that if we were living in Flatland, that student’s parent would be a square, having four equal