Hard Times

Part I of Essay
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 s ....

Part II of Essay
.... sound, that is precisely what Mr. Gradgrind wished to accomplish. In my opinion, however, he was not an unkind man at all. He believed absolutely that he was doing a good deed. He was affectionate in his way; but he studiously repressed all forms of spontaneous affection and as his children grew up, it came to be realized that he was not in sympathetic touch with them. This was especially apparent with Mr. Gradgrind's two older children, Louisa and Tom. Tom became morose and discontented, while Louisa stayed somber and hopeless and neith ....