Hard Times 2

The one most necessary thing in education, according to Mr. Gradgrind, a retired hardware merchant of Coketown, was facts. In his harsh and somewhat closed view, all human events were susceptible of measurement; they could be reduced to balances with so many facts on one side and so many facts on the other side. According to him, admirations, imagination and even sentiment were useless and disturbing factors that had a tendency to destroy the balance, …

…was probably somewhat educationally enlightened by the whole experience but continued to sit in Parliament and really in my opinion, did not change much. Certainly, his educational theories did not prove effective in anyway. Rebellion is an undeniable part of human nature when a part of us is suppressed. As I wrote, Mr. Gradgrind attempted to suppress both the affective, and part of the cognitive areas, which is why he failed and apparently, existentialism prevailed.