Gradgrindery

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.

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".

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.