Dickens & education in Hard Times Essay Example for Free

Dickens rearing in Hard Times EssayIn Hard times we see two versions of the knowledge base of education. The first view is that of Thomas Gradgrinds and his model school. A place where facts are valued and imagination is regarded as unimportant. This is the utilitarian view. The second view is contrasted with the utilitarian view and is that of Mr Slearys circus. This is a place with much knowledge valuing twain imagination and education. A place without the wealth of the Gradgrinds but much in humanity. This is the fanciful world. I regard Dickens is telling us that there are many contrary ways of bringing up and educating children.It is rough getting the right balance between education and imagination. For example Sissy was brought up by her father and didnt go to school but was quite well educated as she used to usher to him, but her father let her use her imagination as she read the wrong books from Gradgrinds point of view. Which were about Fairies and the Hunchbac k and the Genies. But when she went to Gradgrinds house to live there she was cut off from having an imagination, as so was try to learn facts. The reader knows this as Sissy says, I am O so stupid when very she isnt stupid at all, it is just that she has been forced to be brought up the utilitarian way, which is the wrong way for her, as she is used to having a balance between education and imagination but Gradgrind hasnt allowed it. She became low spirited, but no wiser. This is because she has an emotional memory and so she cant learn the facts because she is being taught with a utilitarian view and so she cant attach a feeling to what she is being taught. This is how Dickens implies that different people learn different ways and at different rates.For Gradgrind it could be argued that it was the right way for him as he was educated by his father the utilitarian way. He became a model pupil and owned a school. The reader knows that he was a model pupil as Dickens tells us five young Gradgrinds were models everyone. And They had been lectured at from their tenderest years. And in Gradgrinds eyes this had worked so He intended every child to be a model. But what Gradgrind doesnt make believe is that all children are different and need to be brought up different ways, which is what Dickens is suggesting to the reader.