Hard Times - a look at Victorian education and the first part of the novel.

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The education system in the 19th century was one of the more prominent floors in society. Trainee teachers usually began work around 14 years of age, predictably resulting in poor quality teaching. Subjects and topics were drilled repeatedly until set deep into the children’s memories. Numbers of children to a class were incredibly high, meaning there was a huge lack min teacher – pupil relationship. If you happened to be particularly bright then you were likely to be dragged behind whereas if you were unfortunately slow, then you would be left behind with no special help or encouragement. Authorities were very domineering; everybody was expected to be able to follow the system, personal differences were not taken into account in any way productive. Corporal punishment is another feature commonly used by Victorian teachers; children were often beaten because of mistakes, and as you can imagine, violence from teachers was a frequent event mainly due to the narrow minded peremptory conditions.

Evidently, the consequences of such an education produced uniformity to such a degree that linked each child into the system. The sense of depersonalisation that consumed the tender young imaginations, so vivid and active - the impersonal existence that dissolved away any trace of flourishing enthusiasm and discarded the dregs; deadpan, stunted adults. All the same, and all plugged into the same matrix.

The novel Hard Times powerfully reflects Dickens’ personal interest in the education system. He seems to have taken samples from particular features of education and amplified them to create a fictional scenario constructed from reality.

The fundamentally dogmatic features of authority e.g. Thomas Gradgrind, Mr. Mchoakumchild etc, are uncompromising to differences of any kind: ‘You mustn’t tell us about the ring, here.’ This is Gradgrind’s response to Sissy Jupe, who tells him how her father ‘belongs to the riding’. He clearly disagrees with how Sissy’s father runs his life therefore in his opinion it is wrong.

Encouragement and support was not a feature of education so when Sissy is unable to define a horse she is humiliated, as I will discuss later.

In Hard Times, learning objectives are entirely fact orientated, where facts are stamped onto the children’s minds. Bitzer’s definition of a horse strongly reflects this: ‘Quadruped Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty four grinders, four eye teeth and twelve incisive.’ This description of a horse includes no description of a horse’s nature, no imagination and no possible variables that may be a characteristic of an individual horse - just the hard facts the information recited by Bitzer. This information has been memorised, not learnt. I don’t think that this is an adequate method of teaching, because, for example although Bitzer can recite a list of facts under the title of ‘horse’ it doesn’t mean he knows what a horse is, or even looks like. It is important that children learn to apply a subject to context and understand it; knowing what you’re talking about is extremely important and without these things, Gradgrind’s form of fact is almost useless.

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Thomas Gradgrind is an exceedingly heavy handed character in ‘Hard Times’, hw reaches the full extent of Dickens’ magisterial version of Victorian education. The first paragraph of ‘Hard Times’ consists alone of highly opinionated speech from Gradgrind, of course, as far as he himself is concerned it is all factual information. Gradgrind adheres to one creed, and that is one of facts: ‘facts alone are wanted in life’. He is almost pharisaic on the matter; the way of facts to him, acts as a religion he so passionately follows. Gradgrind is a representative Dickens uses to express his dislike for this ...

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