Etymology
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Gradgrind + -ery
Gradgrindery (uncountable)
- 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[1], →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[2], →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.