Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Flatland, a novel written in the early 1900s by mathematician, social philosopher and head of the City of London School Edwin Abbot Abbot, is a wonderful novel that, on the surface, is a cute little story about some geometric shapes who live in a two dimensional world called Flatland, but underneath is full of strong statements about racism and social structure - gender equity in particular. Edwin Abbot Abbot was well ahead of his time with his ideas and with his challenge to see beyond the surface appearance of things. Thomas Banchoff, who wrote the introduction for the newest re-publication of Flatland said this about the novel, "Abbott was a social reformer who... was a firm believer in equality of educational opportunity, across social classes and in particular for women. He participated actively in the efforts to bring about changes, and the frustration he felt from the resistance of the educational establishment is mirrored in the satire of Flatland...Abbott definitely saw education as a means for students to transcend the social class into which they were born...A basic liberal education should be provided to all students...The social lessons of Flatland are st

Multicultural interaction and education are very important in today's society. A big issue I noticed from reading the article on Madison High School was that students came to the school and were suddenly faced with interacting with students from many different backgrounds, and they did not know how to do that. Flatland is not only an intriguing and engaging book about geometry itself, it also teaches valuable lessons about what a negatively multicultural society would be like - one with distinct classes who are viewed as "better" or "worse" than others. Students learn from reading Flatland that a society where groups are not viewed as equal is not a very fun kind to live in. Flatland will help stimulate ideas of how to better get along with those they feel different from and uncomfortable around.

The Knowledge Construction Process: The knowledge construction process relates to the extent to which teachers help students to understand, investigate and determine how the implicit cultural assumptions, frames of reference, perspectives, and biases within a discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed within it. Both the mathematical and the social satirical parts of Flatland encourage the reader to look at things from different points of view. Edwin Abbot Abbot's goal was to teach people to examine things from a new perspective, and not just go through life with tunnel vision. One activity that fits under this dimension is a class discussion in which the students and teacher discuss what kinds of things we just blindly accept in our society, and how we can look at things in a new way. For example, in the section on women, the class can engage in a discussion about if they've ever viewed anyone as lower than they are, the way Flatland men view the women, and if their justification for it does not make it right, as in Flatland.

Prejudice Reduction: This dimension focuses on the characteristic of students' racial attitudes and how they can be modified by teaching methods and materials. Flatland teaches a wonderful lesson about accepting people who are perceiv

Some topics in this essay:
Equity Pedagogy, Thomas Banchoff, Victorian England, Social Structure, Madison School, Abbot Abbot's, Abbot Abbot, Construction Process, Integration Content, Prejudice Reduction, school culture, edwin abbot, edwin abbot abbot, treated equally, equity pedagogy, reading flatland, abbot abbot, flatland society, teacher students, knowledge construction process, social structure, students backgrounds,