The opening chapters of the novel show what it was like as a child in a school in the 19th century. Children were to be taught facts, the opening chapter begins inside a classroom and the speaker Mr. Gradgrind exclaims, “Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.” This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!” Notice the name Grad-Grind, this can be related to the grinding of facts into the children. Mr. Thomas Gradgrind is the founder of the Gradgrind educational system and he is also a Member of Parliament. He represents a teacher of "hard facts" and no fancy. Mr. Gradgrinds School opposes fancy with facts, there is to be no form of imaginative literature or thoughts and opinions. Mr Gradgrinds believes that his job is to grind down the children with facts. Children are referred to as numbers and there is no relationship between pupils and teachers, children only speak when they speak when spoken to. The children are described as, "little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to imperial gallons of facts poured into them.”
The schoolroom is described as plain, boring and what seems a very unarming environment. “The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom.” Mr Gradgrind, the speaker, the man of facts, is described as a square looking person, with a square coat, square legs and square shoulders. This gives me the impression of a straight forward, unfriendly and un-warming person. He is made into more of an object and shape than an actual individual person meaning that he has no form of personal feeling apart from the teaching of “hard facts”. He is unaccommodating and creates “Hard Times” for the pupils.
Chapter Two begins with the introduction of Thomas Gradgrind, "a man of realities facts and calculations. “A man who precedes upon the principle two and two equals four, and nothing over.” He always is talked about as THOMAS GRADGRIND, his full name, fact, showing he is an immediate and obedient person. At the start of chapter two, murdering the innocents, Dickens describes Gradgrind with words linked to Mathematics, a factual description to describe a factual man. Dickens then continues to describe the personality of Gradgrind, he refers to him as a “cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts and prepared to blow the regions of childhood to discharge.” He uses the metaphor to relate the teaching of facts to war firing facts at the children. He is a “galvanizing” figure who gets jobs done.
The lesson continues and is handed to Mr Gradgrind who approaches a girl: "Give me your definition of a horse." While Girl number twenty knows what a horse is, she is unable to define one. Another child in the class, a boy called Bitzer, easily defines the animal by means of biological classifications making the young girl Sissy Jupe look stupid. It seems that Bitzer has previously experienced Gradgrinds method of teaching and defines the horse easily. The lesson continues and a third person steps forward. He is a government officer and also a boxer. His job is to remove "fancy" and "imagination" from the minds of the children. They learn that it is nonsense to decorate a room with representations of horses because horses do not walk up and down the sides of rooms in reality, a fact. The children should be fired with facts, no imagery, no fancy, just fact. Sissy Jupe is a slow learner, among the group of strugglers who admit that they would dare to carpet a room with representations of flowers because she is "fond" and likes to ”fancy.” Sissy is taught that she must not "fancy" and that she is not to have any relationship with fancy and must only think, thoughts governed by fact. She is to be taught “Fact, fact, fact,” said the gentlemen.
After the gentleman finishes his speech, the schoolteacher, Mr. M'Choakumchild, begins his lesson. He has been trained in a schoolteacher-factory and knows almost all the facts available to be known, he has been taught to teach the children in a dry and uninspiring manor but full of hard facts. His job is to find fancy in the minds of children, remove it, and load their brains with facts.
Perhaps the name M’Choakumchild explains the type of charter he is. If you split the name up it is quite self-explanatory. M’-Choak-um-Child, a teacher who chokes children with facts.
These first two chapters of this novel, Hard Times by Charles Dickens have given me a brief image of what I was like for a child during education in the 19th century and how teachers treated children. There was no form of relationship or feeling between pupils and teachers and the teachers spoke down to the children, they were seen as “little vessels.” The novel focuses on educational and economic systems of Victorian England. The children were referred to as numbers making each child feel that they have no qualities. Children were taught facts; fantasy should not exist and must be removed from their heads and replaced with hard facts. Dickens uses particular names for the teachers to suit their character. Thoms Gradgrind was a man of hard facts who grinds facts into the children, hence the name Grad-grind. Mr M’Choakemchild was a man who removes fantasy from their brain and chokes them with facts, hence the name M’Chocke-m-child. The Gradgrind educational system based in the 19th century is somewhat different from education in the 20th century where each child can present their own thoughts and feelings and show their qualities. The teachers have relationships with the children and each child is referred to informally by their first name. In Gradgrinds educational system conversation between pupils and teachers was formal, dry and unarming. From the image I have gathered the times for children who were in education during the 19th century must have been some what hard, hence the name of the novel “Hard Times.”
