Paul Thomas
Medium
Greenville, SC, United States
Contact Paul
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Paul:
Science Supports Balance, Not Intensive Phonics, for Teaching Reading
The “science of reading,” in fact, supports balanced literacy and not prioritizing systematic intensive phonics. → Read More
Questions Skew Answers about White Privilege
“Believe” is a problematic verb, and before anyone can answer or anyone can interpret the answers, we must all agree on what “Santa Claus” means. Does “Santa Claus” mean a literal man who travels the… → Read More
Privilege as a Barrier to Learning
I am deeply skeptical about two things — criticism of “young people today” as if this younger generation is somehow significantly less capable than older generations and student evaluations of… → Read More
The Eternal Darkness of the Empty Mind
I was born in Woodruff, South Carolina, and spent some of my childhood in nearby Enoree. Both were very small (Enoree was essentially a cross roads, not far from even smaller Cross Anchor); both were… → Read More
Becoming a Good Writer: On Purpose and Authority
While watching (re-watching for me) Marvel’s The Punisher (Netflix), my partner noted, “He is a really good actor,” about Jon Bernthal who plays Frank Castle (The Punisher). This is something we all… → Read More
The Zombie Allure of Ayn Rand’s Empty Literature and Philosophy
Citing Rand is the academic equivalent to citing Wikipedia or the dictionary in an essay for your first-year composition course. → Read More
2022: On Fear and Anxiety
Pop culture science fiction created in mid- to late twentieth century was often set in the world we inhabit today. → Read More
US Media Consumers Trapped in Both-Sides Multiverse
If you want to fully understand mainstream journalism in the U.S., Twitter provided a few excellent examples recently. The examples often come from the New York Times, a publication either viewed as… → Read More
12–22–21: Nerdvana. I clung to the jock life desperately in…
I clung to the jock life desperately in high school, but the nerd life was who I was, who I am. → Read More
Helping Students Avoid Meta-Essay Moves
Fostering in students more sophisticated approaches to cited essays is part of the transition from high school to college. → Read More
Critical Race Theory: The Facts and Irony (for White People)
As nearly daily reporting highlights, the manufactured anger over Critical Race Theory (CRT) continues to influence directly and indirectly both public discourse as well as teaching and learning in… → Read More
Conservative Wet-Paper-Towel Commentary and the So-Called “Liberal” Media
Robert Pondiscio and Frederick Hess, both from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, are about as credible as a paper towel, a wet paper towel. The so-called “liberal” mainstream media love… → Read More
On Transitions and Students as Writers
Both my FYW and graduate students are in transition, and both have overlapping challenges with those transitions. → Read More
Just in Time: Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons
“The subjugations and abuses of not-men by men are too numerous to catalog in a library…let alone a book.” → Read More
Freedom and the Politics of Canceling Teachers and Curriculum
Teaching and curriculum in the U.S. are being systematically and politically whitewashed. → Read More
Reading Matters. Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
I imagine you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would disagree with those two simple words. But the reality is that those two words have dramatically different meanings among people advocating… → Read More
Banning Books Is Un-American
Book banning is an act of removing everyone’s opportunity to choose what they read and what they learn. → Read More
“Is everybody okay? Let’s get something to eat”: On George Carlin and the Intellectual Bankruptcy of the Right
In Season 4, episode 3 of Seinfeld, the show becomes a meta-sitcom. George and Jerry pitch a sitcom to NBC, Jerry, and establish what would become the short-hand way to describe the actual show… → Read More
Banned in the U.S.A. Redux 2021: “[T]o behave as educated persons would”
We know of course there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard. → Read More
The Politics of Art and Artist: Tom King’s Rorschach
Politicians and political pundits in the U.S. routinely debate whether or not the American public is center-right or center-left in their political and ideological grounding. However, a more… → Read More