THE BECOMING RADICAL
EMPATHYEDUCATES!
the becoming radical
A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness
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High Noon: “Why Everyone (Almost) Is Wrong about Common Core”
High Noon at the Upcountry History Museum 2014 Fall Schedule All lectures begin at noon on Wednesdays and last one hour. The Upcountry History Museum/Furman University is located at 540 Buncombe Street in downtown Greenville’s Heritage Green area (near the Greenville County Main Library and Greenville Little Theatre). For more information, contact Furman’s Marketing and Public Relations office at
remnant 64: ‘Are we that warlike, that childish, that afraid?’
remnant 64: ‘Are we that warlike, that childish, that afraid?’.
SEP 11
Imagine: On Bravado and Humility, 11 September 2014
On the eve of 9/11 2014, President Obama admitted, “Still, we continue to face a terrorist threat,” adding: We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That’s why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge…. Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrori
SEP 10
Adjectives and Video: The Willful Ignorance of a Violent Nation
Darkly humorous and deeply unsettling, “Rape Fantasies” by Margaret Atwood confronts the 1970s pop culture examination of date rape. As Atwood is apt to do, she forces readers to tread uncomfortably in the water of what constitutes rape, including details of women’s rape fantasies and the very real possibility that the narrator feels threatened by her date. That “date” qualifies rape in this story
Language Arts: Grading in a Perfect World
Language Arts: Grading in a Perfect World September 2014 See p. 34 for my response
SEP 09
Authoritarian v. Authoritative: “With great power comes great responsibility”
The Peter Parker/Spider-Man myth—like most in the ever-reshaping and rebooting world of comic book super heroes—has spun a slightly inaccurate but powerful catch-phrase around Peter’s Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” The original wording—“AND A LEAN, SILENT FIGURE SLOWLY FADES INTO THE GATHERING DARKNESS, AWARE AT LAST THAT IN THIS WORLD, WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO C
SEP 08
Our Practice, Our Selves
In my undergraduate introductory education course, I read aloud the first or second class Sandra Cisneros’s “Eleven.” The central character is Rachel, and the setting is her school day on her eleventh birthday. School that day strips all the shine from what should be a day of celebration and joy for this child because her math teacher, Mrs. Price, demands that Rachel not only claim but also wear a
SEP 07
DRAFT [Please email your support, allowing your name to be included, and any edits ASAP to paul.thomas@furman.edu] NCTE ...
DRAFT [Please email your support, allowing your name to be included, and any edits ASAP to paul.thomas@furman.edu] NCTE Resolution: Grade Retention as Flawed Education and Reading Policy Grade retention as a major element in education and reading policy has been adopted by at least 14 states, with 32+ states linking reading intervention to high-stakes testing (Rose, 2012). These policies ignore fo
The Answer Sheet: Does holding kids back a year help them academically? No. But schools still do it.
Does holding kids back a year help them academically? No. But schools still do it.
Cashing in on Journalism’s Neutral Pose
As I have highlighted several times about how often education journalism fails the democratic goals of both the free press and universal public education, this Tweet from Juana Summers at NPR represents the power of the neutral pose among journalists: @plthomasEdD I’m not sure it’s my place to say whether the study is credible, but we both note the significant criticism of the methods. — Juana Sum
SEP 06
Loadbang Concert & Recording
Loadbang Concert & Recording This will include music by my friend Peter Kay.
‘Chiraq’: Facts and Fictions – How These Affect Our Children
During a memorial service on July 20 in Chicago, Audry Miller mourns granddaughter Shamiya Adams, 11, who was killed by a stray bullet. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)By Salim Muwakkil | Originally Published at In These Times. August 28, 2014 Jamal, now 20, lives in Fuller Park, […]
SEP 08
An Open Letter To The White Teachers Who Wore NYPD T-Shirts To School, Despite Being Told Not To
It must have seemed like a fantastic idea when, despite warnings from the United Federation of Teachers, you all donned NYPD shirts and crowded in front of a camera for a smirking group portrait. Through this lens, which is conspicuously White, those matching gray shirts might either […]
Our Practice, Our Selves
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. September 9, 2014 In my undergraduate introductory education course, I read aloud the first or second class Sandra Cisneros’s “Eleven.” The central character is Rachel, and the setting is her school day on her eleventh […]
SEP 07
‘Helicopter Parenting’ Hysteria
Photograph Credit; Shutterstock _Film Grain By Alfie Kohn | Originally Published at Huffington Post. September 4, 2014 4:50 PM EDT Helicopter parents of college-age children are the folks we love to hate. A steady stream of articles and blog posts bristle with indignation over dads who phone […]