Katherine Watson vs. Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Katherine Watson encouraged her students personally and in the classroom, to come up with their own ideas, their own words instead of what the textbook told them. She wanted the girls to be an original and not a copy and paste portrait or a paint by numbers painting. Whereas, in the Charles Dickens' novel, "You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service upon these children." The novel directly battles with Watson's teaching of "thinking independently." It suggests that thinking outside the box is wrong and it is not beneficial to the student in life. That concrete evidence of an idea or theory is relevant and a guess or consideration of an organic idea is irrelevant. Challenging the overpowering school board and even the girls themselves, Katherine Watson told them they are "not required to like it; just consider it," and she used this to eventually gain the girls' real thoughts and independence within themselves. She freed their minds.