How is education presented in Hard Times?

Education in Hard Times is often presented as little more than rote learning and the transmission of facts. In the notorious figure of Mr. Gradgrind, we have the epitome of Victorian utilitarianism with regards to the education of children. What matters more than anything else for him is that knowledge must have utility value, which is to say it serves some practical purpose. In such a rigid ideology there is no place for imagination or creativity. Mr. Gradgrind didn't become such a wealthy entrepreneur by studying poetry or art; he made his own way in the world by the understanding of cold, hard facts.
He lacks the imagination to understand that education can be broad and deep, allowing different children to develop their unique talents in their own individual ways. In common with most adults of the time, Mr. Gradgrind regards children as miniature adults. Their minds must be molded into the appropriate shape to prepare them for the outside world, the world of facts.
Yet Sissy Jupe's understanding of what constitutes a horse is arguably more practical than one gleaned from a precise definition learned by rote, the kind you'd find in a dictionary. Sissy knows what horses are because she has experience of them. She doesn't need to define a horse; she just needs to see one, hear one, ride one, or pet and stroke one. In other words, meaning is derived from how we engage in the real world around us, not through defining words and concepts with precision in advance as Mr. Gradgrind would have us do.