Gradgrindery

English

Etymology

Gradgrind +‎ -ery

Noun

Gradgrindery (uncountable)

  1. Impatient technical pedantry that dismisses human factors, especially regarding education.
    • 2001, Justin Lewis, Constructing Public Opinion: How Political Elites Do What They Like and Why We Seem to Go Along with It:
      For others, the process of reducing words to numbers is like sucking the life out of language, a remorseless exercise in Gradgrindery whose limited worldview masquerades as objectivity and universal truth.
    • 2007 April 18, John Bull, “Obituary: Tony Neville”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      Tony often contrasted the humanistic ideals of his heroes and teachers with the dry, bureaucratic Gradgrindery which he felt characterised many attempts at educational "reform".
    • 2013 November 7, Ian Barge, “Children must learn to question, not simply obey”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      Polly Toynbee is spot on in her excoriation of Govian Gradgrindery. The inevitable marginalisation of the supposedly "soft" arts subjects in the state sector is a scandal.
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