Victorian Education and the First Part of Hard Times by Charles Dickens
The education system in the 19th century was one of the more prominentfloors in society. Trainee teachers usually began work around 14 yearsof age, predictably resulting in poor quality teaching. Subjects andtopics were drilled repeatedly until set deep into the children’smemories. Numbers of children to a class were incredibly high, meaningthere was a huge lack min teacher – pupil relationship. If youhappened to be particularly bright then you were likely to be draggedbehind whereas if you were unfortunately slow, then you would be leftbehind with no special help or encouragement. Authorities were verydomineering; everybody was expected to be able to follow the system,personal differences were not taken into account in any wayproductive. Corporal punishment is another feature commonly used byVictorian teachers; children were often beaten because of mistakes,and as you can imagine, violence from teachers was a frequent eventmainly due to the narrow minded peremptory conditions.
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Evidently, the consequences of such an education produced uniformityto such a degree that linked each child into the system. The sense ofdepersonalisation that consumed the tender young imaginations, sovivid and active – the impersonal existence that dissolved away anytrace of flourishing enthusiasm and discarded the dregs; deadpan,stunted adults. All the same, and all plugged into the same matrix.
The novel Hard Times powerfully reflects Dickens’ personal interest inthe education system. He seems to have taken samples from particularfeatures of education and amplified them to create a fictionalscenario constructed from reality.
Th…
…ian education absolutely horrifies me (probably due to mylove of expressive arts), and I think that there is no way that thehumiliation and dehumanisation could have had any positive affect onthe children. There was no stimulation or variations of syllabus fordifferent levels of academic intelligence and I think that theintroduction of these things have had a positive and productiveoutcome. I am curious to read on having reached this point, especiallyto look into how the young Gradgrinds turn out. I’d also like to seehow Sissy is affected by the system – if she is at all.
One of the things that really makes me want to read on, is theintroduction of several new characters fairly early in the story; theway they are linked to each other and how they differ as individualsseems to entice my imagination – I want to know what’s going to happennext.
