Bad Light in cricket, VAR in football, Algorithms in A Level exams: Gradgrindism rules
Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir—peremptorily Thomas—Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic.
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
It is perhaps not unexpected in our neo-liberal times but examples of human judgement being swept aside by mechanical decision making continue to abound.
On Friday several interruptions for bad light in the Second Test between England and Pakistan at Southampton took place. These were based not on an assessment by the Umpires about whether the light was dangerous to players but on the reading of a light meter.
It appeared rather similar to VAR in football where the referee is by-passed by video decisions about whether a player’s toe was offside and hence a goal must be disallowed.
On Thursday there was widespread protest after 2020 A Level results were determined not by the human judgement of teachers but by an algorithm.
In every case the spirit of Gradgrind hovers like a spectre.
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