The Presentation of Education in Hard Times by Charles Dickens Essay ex

Examine the exhibit of Education, chapters 1 to 4 in Hard Timesby Charles twoCharles hellion precious to attack the failings of education and thewrong-headedness of the prevailing philosophy in education. Hebelieved that m either schools discouraged the development of thechildrens imaginations, training them as piffling parrots and smallcalculating machines (Dickens used this phrase in a lecture he gavein 1857). Nor did Dickens approve of the recently instituted teachertraining colleges. These had been set up in the 1840s, after theBritish governing body acknowledged the need to raise the standard ofeducation in schools. The school principalting graduates of these training collegesbegan teaching in 1853, a year forrader the number of Hard Times.MChoakumchild, the teacher in Gradgrinds school (which was a nonfee-paying school that catered to the lower classes), is Dickenssportrait of one of these impudently trained teachers.Many educators agreed through time-sharing Dickenss situation of what werewrong with the schools. They believed there was too much emphasis oncramming the children exuberant of facts and figures, and not enoughattention given to other aspects of their development, for example 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 outeverything else. You can however form the minds of reasoning animals uponFacts nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is theprinciple on which I bring up my testify children, and this is theprinciple on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sirDickens chooses to begin the novel in the classroom, which he depictsas a microcosm of the inhuman world ou... ...ein the moon it was up in the moon before it could speak distinctly.No little Gradgrind had ever learnt the silly jingle, Twinkle,twinkle, little star how I wonder what you are No little Gradgrindhad ever cognize wonder on the subject, each li ttle Gradgrind having atfive long time old dissected the Great Bear like a professor Owen, anddriven Charless Wain like a locomotive engine-driver. No littleGradgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with that illustrious cowwith the crumpled horn who tossed the dog who worried the cat whokilled the backside who ate the malt, or with that yet more famous cow whoswallowed tom Thumb it had never heard of those celebrities, and hadonly been introduced to a cow as a graminivorous ruminating quadrupedwith several stomachs. This shows a bit more intimately Gradgrinds viewson education and the way he raises his children.