Gradgrind Gradgrind Mr Thomas Gradgrind is the notorious school board Superintendent in Dickens's 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, the man himself he was the father of five children, naming them after prominent utilitarians such as Robert Malthus. He also ran a model school where young pupils were treated as machines pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts. This satirised Scottish philosopher James Mill who attempted to
Dickens, Vancouver Dickens, Vancouver Dickens is a small neighbourhood in East Vancouver, Canada. Its area is from East 12th Avenue (northern boundary) to King Edward Avenue (southern boundary) and from Fraser Street (western boundary) to Knight Street (eastern boundary). Kingsway runs diagonally through the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood lies within the city-defined community of Kensington-Cedar Cottage. The area is named after the schools in the area, both named Dickens (Charles Dickens Elementary School and its Annex), which have been rated among the top forty schools in Canada. Parks in the Dickens area include Glen Park (adjacent to Charles Dickens Annex) and Sunnyside Park