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    Hard Times Introduction Powerpoint

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    sarahsmall
    This document provides background information on Charles Dickens and discusses his novel Hard Times. It notes that Dickens had a difficult childhood where he experienced poverty and was forced to work in a factory at a young age. This experience influenced his writing. The document also discusses the Victorian education system that Dickens critiques in Hard Times, noting it focused solely on facts and saw students as products to feed the industrial economy.

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    Hard Times Introduction Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    sarahsmall
    1K views14 pages
    This document provides background information on Charles Dickens and discusses his novel Hard Times. It notes that Dickens had a difficult childhood where he experienced poverty and was forced to work in a factory at a young age. This experience influenced his writing. The document also discusses the Victorian education system that Dickens critiques in Hard Times, noting it focused solely on facts and saw students as products to feed the industrial economy.

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    Hard Times introduction powerpoint

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    This document provides background information on Charles Dickens and discusses his novel Hard Times. It notes that Dickens had a difficult childhood where he experienced poverty and was forced to work in a factory at a young age. This experience influenced his writing. The document also discusses the Victorian education system that Dickens critiques in Hard Times, noting it focused solely on facts and saw students as products to feed the industrial economy.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    1K views14 pages

    Hard Times Introduction Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    sarahsmall
    This document provides background information on Charles Dickens and discusses his novel Hard Times. It notes that Dickens had a difficult childhood where he experienced poverty and was forced to work in a factory at a young age. This experience influenced his writing. The document also discusses the Victorian education system that Dickens critiques in Hard Times, noting it focused solely on facts and saw students as products to feed the industrial economy.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 14

    Hard Times

    Charles Dickens
    Pre-20 Century Novel essay
    th

    How does Dickens present the


    education system in Hard
    Times?
    What makes….?
    A Good Teacher A Bad Teacher

    A Good School A Bad School


    Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
    • Charles Dickens is one of the most
    famous Victorian authors.
    • His own story is one of rags to riches.
    • Sent to school at the age of nine BUT
    short-lived because his father was
    imprisoned for bad debt.
    • Charles was sent to work to earn money
    for the family in Warren's blacking
    factory.
    • Appalling conditions and Dickens felt
    loneliness and despair.
    Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
    • Father was released, BUT the twelve year
    old Dickens, was made to continue to
    work at the factory.
    • His father, however, rescued him from that
    fate, and
    Dickens became a day pupil at a school in
    London.
    • His brief stint at the Blacking factory
    haunted him all of his life -- he spoke of it
    only to his wife and to his closest friend-
    but the dark secret became a source for his
    writing.
    • MassiveIndustry andandEducation
    industrial progress advances in
    technology.
    • Education was needed so industry and commerce
    could keep up with other countries in Europe,
    particularly Germany, where national schools had
    already been set up.
    • The Education Act of 1870 stated that education
    should be available for all children between the ages
    of 5 and 13.
    • Big buildings were required to educate many children.
    • School Boards were set up to organise education in
    areas where new schools were needed When we talk
    about ‘Victorian schools’ in this unit we mean these
    ‘Board Schools’ as they came to be called.
    School for all?
    • Free education was available for the children of the poor,
    such as in the ‘Ragged’ Schools or Workhouse Schools,
    but they were usually sent out to work as soon as they
    were old enough.
    • Families were large, wages poor, and children worked
    alongside adults in agriculture and industry, including
    factories and mines.
    • This mixture of education systems meant that learning
    took place in many different buildings, from public
    schools, groups in church halls or small village schools,
    to rooms in the teacher’s or parents’ own house.
    BOOK THE FIRST - SOWING:
    CHAPTER I The One Thing Needful

    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. This is the principle
    on which I bring up my own children, and
    this is the principle on which I bring up
    these children. Stick to Facts, sir!'
    How would you cope?
    • What is a horse?
    – If a teacher were to ask you this question in the
    present day write down what you would answer.
    – Now imagine Mr Gradgrind in ‘Hard Times’ were
    to ask you this. What kind of answer might he
    expect? Write down what you would answer to
    him.
    Chapter
    'Bitzer,' said 2: Murdering
    Thomas the innocents
    Gradgrind. 'Your
    definition of a horse.'
    'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty
    teeth, namely twenty-four grinders,
    four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive.
    Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy
    countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs
    hard, but requiring to be shod with
    iron. Age known by marks in
    mouth.’
    Comprehension questions
    • 1. Where did Charles Dickens have to work?
    • 2. What were his feelings about his work?
    • 3. What ages did the 1870 Education Act state
    schooling should be made available for? What were
    these schools known as?
    • 4. In ‘Hard Times’ the school is shown to be like a
    factory. What does Mr Gradgrind want to produce
    from his school?
    • 5. How is school different now? What other skills are
    encouraged in pupils?

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