ABSTRACT
In an age of standardized testing and critical analysis, logical reasoning and efferent understanding of texts have understandably come to the forefront of all education spheres-whether scientific, literary, historical-and have even crept into our conception of character education. Rosenblatt (2005) and others have pointed out this out-of-balance proportionate emphasis given to strengthening and developing the logical and efferent side of a child’s mind, often at the expense of developing the heart and soul. Our Western bias, inherited from the Enlightenment, prefers knowledge that can be proven-a rational and coherent system of observable, countable facts. Any knowledge that does not come from a logical formula or reasoned analysis is generally regarded with suspicion. We see the same bias in Dickens’s Hard Times (1854) character, Mr. Gradgrind, who was obsessed with eliminating nonsensical “fancy” from the minds of his students in favor of practical rules and facts.
