I'd like you to check the first part of the rephrase. I'll post you the rest in my next post. Thank you.
1) In Chapter 2 Thomas Gradgrind, is introduced as a rigid, narrow-minded man, who seems to be concerned only about facts with a total disregard for imagination. He always carries a rule, a pair of scales and a multiplication table in his pocket, ready to measure every single parcel (synonym) of human nature.
2) His name, like most Dickens’s names, is symbolic of the utilitarian philosophy he embodies. It is composed of grade, which indicates a level of quality of a product and grind, which mean crushing into powder. In point of fact, he crushes (crams) his pupils with rules.
3) He believes that human nature can be measured, quantified, and governed entirely by rational rules. Although he is not a factory owner, Mr. Gradgrind evinces (synonym) the spirit of the Industrial Revolution insofar as (since??) he treats people like machines that can be reduced to a number of scientific principles.
4) Here Dickens suggests that 19-th century England was turning human beings into machines by avoiding the development of imagination.
5) Dickens ( or Mr. Gradgrind? What do you think?) refers to his pupils as little pitchers, who are to be filled with facts. Mr. Gradgrind is then compared to a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. (I need to simplify this).
6) “He seems a galvanizing apparatus charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away”. (Please, help me to rephrase this!)
1. "a ruler"
change "parcel" to "facet"
2. ... like most names in Dickens' works ...
3. change "evinces" to "exhibits" or "displays"
Yes, "since" is better than "as" here.
4. 19th (no hyphen), but "19th-century" (when both words together modify another word, in this case "England")
5. Mr. Gradgrind ... cannon, loaded ... and ready to blast them clear out of their childhood years.
6. He seems to be trying to shock each child's imagination out of existence by such mechanical instruction. (??)