The Role of Education is a very important point in this novel 'Hard Times'. Charles Dickens described the every factors about the education through this novel.

1. The Role of Education in ‘Hard Times’
PREPARED BY
RAHUL DESAI

2. Self Introduction
 Presented By :- Rahul Desai
 Roll No :- 36
 Semester :- 1
 Paper No :- 104
 Paper Name :- Literature of the Victorians
 Presentation Topic :- The Role of Education in ‘Hard Times’
 Submitted To :- Smt. S.B. Gardi, Department of English (MKBU)
 Email ID :- rahuldesai477@gmail.com

3. Index
 About Charles Dickens
 Background of ‘Hard Times' novel
 Thomas Gradgrind’s philosophy of education
 Creativity in Education
 Utilitarianism and the Education system
 Creative Alternatives
 The concept of Three ‘H’
 Conclusion

4. About Charles Dickens
 Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English Novelist and social critique.
 Charles Dickens was the great novelist of the Victorian era.
 Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was known for his satiric style of writing
and his including style humor in kind of works of art.
 This book surveys English society satirizes the social and economic
conditions of the era.
 Charles Dickens’s most famous works like…
1) ‘The Pickwick Papers’ (1836)
2) ‘Oliver Twist’ (1838)
3) ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ (1839)
4) ‘A Tale of two cities’ (1859)
5) ‘Great Expectations’ (1861)

5. Background of ‘Hard Times' novel
 “Hard Times” novel written by Charles Dickens, Published in the year 1854.
 Full Title: ‘Hard Times for these time'
 “Hard Times” is the story about the tale of group of people who lived in an industrial
town named Coketown during the mid-19th century.
 It is a social protest novel of 19th century England.
 Victorian Genre & realistic novel, we can also say that it's a kind of Satire.
 This novel takes in three parts after a biblical verse,
1) “Sowing”
2) “Reaping”
3) “Garnering”
 Novel suggest 19th century England turning into a factory machine.
 The novel is best known for the state of trade unions & the exploration of the
working class by capitalist elites.

6. Thomas Gradgrind’s philosophy of education
 Thomas believes that education should focus on practical knowledge and
utility.
 He is a strong advocate of utilitarianism.
 He has strict rejection of anything imaginative, emotional, feeling or fanciful.
 Gradgrind’s education system is mechanical in nature, treating students as
empty vessels to be filled with facts.
 He believes in gradual, incremental progress, passion and hard work.
 Mr. Gradgrind tells Mr. M’Choakumchild to teach students only facts.

7. Creativity in Education
 Creativity it includes a dichotomy between authoritarian and authoritative teaching and
the relevance of creativity within these two perspective of teaching, not to say two
philosophies in education.
 Mr. Gradgrind, a famous example in British literature is taken as a model of authoritarian
teaching.
 That the authoritative teaching is open to creativity in comparison to authoritarian
teaching.
 Creativity extends the senses by granting further knowledge.
 Gradgrind asked a girl called Sissy Jupe to the definition of a horse.
 In ‘Hard Times', we have seen Bitzer’s answer about the signification of a horse, he gave a
scientific description, a technical definition.
 “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.” (Dickens 1995: 9)

8. Utilitarianism and the Education system in
‘Hard Times’
 Education is viewed as a primary agent which is a means to impact knowledge, values
and norms to the people.
 Higher educational agencies in India play a vital role in promoting quality education
across various domains.
 The utilitarian concept in education and scales to measure the standards have made
the exchange of knowledge monotonous and mechanical.
 Charles Dickens’s phenomenal work ‘Hard Times' which appeared during Victorian
times is also a reflection on the education system and the harmful effect of utilitarian
principle.
 ‘Hard Times' depict the importance of education for every child however, the concept
of utilitarianism is primary concern in the work.

9. Creative Alternatives
 Sleary’s Circus (creative & entertaining alternative to traditional education)
 Sissy Jupe’s informal education (kindness, heart alongside the head)
 Rachael’s Moral education (education based on moral values and
compassion)
 Stephen Blackpool’s life experience (hardship provide a different kind of
education)
 Bitzer’s self-interest education (limitations of such an approach)
 Cocktown’s environment and its lessons (alternatives classroom)
 Louisa Gradgrind : (Louisa is an example of a student who has suffered
from her father’s rigid educational philosophy.)

10. The concept of Three ‘H’
 This concept given by our freedom fighter Gandhiji.
 This concept is very much significant in our working class society.
 Three ‘H’ concept describe the power of unity and hard work.
 Three ‘H’ are like…
 1) Head
 2) Heart
 3) Hand
 We can clearly identify this amazing concept in this
industrial revolutionary novel ‘Hard Times’.

11. Conclusion
 In the novel “Hard Times” we can clearly identify the
importance of education. Thomas Gradgrind gave his all
efforts to the providing good education to the people. Charles
Dickens wrote a very interesting novel in his time and this
“Hard Time” novel spread a good concept of education and
good concept of knowledge.

12. Citation
 Dickens , Charles. Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P)
Ltd, 2022. ISBN-10- 8126921773
 Dixon, Thomas. “Educating the Emotions from Gradgrind to Goleman.” Educating the
Emotions from Gradgrind to Goleman, 2017, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Educating-
the-emotions-from-Gradgrind-to-Goleman-
Dixon/91402651f020fb8c5bff0661fd0fba42b35fee2e.
 Gagal, Anshu. Utilitarianism and the Education System in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times,
Sept. 2022, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
 Neema & Ahmed, Ghenim & Mohamed. CREATIVITY AND EDUCATION , 15 June
2016,
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Thomas+Gradgrind%27s+vi
ews+on+education+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1699173694510&u=%23p%3DC9bzqvzTdfgJ

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