Ignoring poverty in America: Professor Thomas writes book on public education

MAY 31, 2012

By Erikah Haavie, Contributing Writer

Furman University education professor Paul Thomas has published his 13th book, Ignoring Poverty in the U.S. — The Corporate Takeover of Public Education (Information Age Publishing).

The book examines how the United States views poverty, people living in poverty, and the weight of poverty on teaching and learning in public schools. Thomas challenges cultural myths about students in poverty, charter schools as viable education reform, and “no excuses” ideologies behind political and public discourse about schools. He confronts many assumptions about poverty, teaching and learning that are rarely examined and argues for education reform based on research and preparing students for democracy.

Before joining the Furman faculty in 2002, Thomas taught high school English in rural South Carolina. He earned undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in education from the University of South Carolina.

He is a column editor for the English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, and series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Sense Publishers), in which he authored the first volume — Challenging Genres: Comics and Graphic Novels. He has written commentaries for the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, Education Week, The State, and The Greenville News.

Read Thomas’ blog here. Visit the publisher’s book site here.