Thomas Gradgrind is the notorious school board Superintendent in
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...
's 1854 novel ''
Hard Times'' who is dedicated to the pursuit of profitable enterprise. His name is now used generically to refer to someone who is hard and only concerned with cold facts and numbers.
In the story
In the story, Gradgrind was the father of five children, naming them after prominent
utilitarians
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the gr ...
. He also ran a model school where young pupils were treated as machines, or
pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with
fact
A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...
s.
[. "What I want is, Facts:" chapter 1. "Fact, fact, fact!:" chapter II] This satirised the Scottish philosopher
James Mill
James Mill (born James Milne; 6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote '' The History of Britis ...
who attempted to develop his sons into perfect utilitarians.
His physical description personified this characterisation of the rigid and insistent
pedagogue
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...
:
In a famous passage, a visiting official asks one of Gradgrind's students, "Suppose you were going to carpet a room. Would you use a carpet having a representation of flowers upon it?" The character Sissy Jupe replies, ingenuously, that she would because, "If you please, Sir, I am very fond of flowers."
References
Gradgrind
Literary characters introduced in 1854
Fictional schoolteachers
Fictional British people
Male characters in literature
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