THOMAS, Paul L. 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born January 26, 1961, in Woodruff, SC; son of Keith (a supervisor) and Rose (a day-care provider; maiden name, Sowers) Thomas; married Fran McCrary (a teacher and coach), January 1, 1983; children: Jessica Frances. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of South Carolina—Spartanburg, B.A., 1983, M.Ed., 1985, Ed.D., 1998. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Bicycling, reading, sports.

ADDRESSES:

Home—218 Summerfield Rd., Moore, SC 29369. Office—Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC 29613. E-mail—paul.thomas@furman.edu.

CAREER:

Woodruff High School, Woodruff, SC, teacher and coach, 1984-2002; Furman University, Greenville, SC, assistant professor of education, 2002—. University of South Carolina—Spartanburg, adjunct instructor, 1987, 1999, 2001-03; Converse College, adjunct instructor, 1995-2002.

MEMBER:

National Council of Teachers of English, Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

WRITINGS:

Vivid Language: Writer as Reader, Reader as Writer, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2001.

Lou LaBrant: A Woman's Life, a Teacher's Life, Nova Science Publishers (Hauppauge, NY), 2001.

Numbers Games: Measuring and Mandating American Education, Peter Lang (New York, NY), in press.

Contributor to books, including Voices in English Classrooms: Honoring Diversity and Change, National Council of Teachers of English (Urbana, IL), 1996. Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including English Journal, English Record, Reading Instruction Journal, Carolina English Teacher, Western Ohio Journal, Education Issues, Oregon English, Vitae Scholasticae, and Practice in Context.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Research on educational vouchers, literacy education, writing instruction, and politics and education.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul L. Thomas told CA: "Thanks to a wonderful high school English teacher, Lynn Harrill, I discovered that I was a reader—and a writer. Since my freshman year of college I have been a poet. Early on, I worked hard to be a fiction writer, completing the obligatory novel that has not been published. Luckily I eventually discovered who I am as a writer—a poet and a writer in my profession of education.

"My fiction roots have served me well as a writer on serious issues of educational debate and with my newest love, educational biography. Fiction writers and poets such as J. D. Salinger, William Faulkner, and e. e. cummings shaped the early me. More recently I have been deeply influenced by Milan Kundera and Kurt Vonnegut who, oddly enough, influences how I write nonfiction pieces on education. The educational writer who has inspired me most is Maxine Greene. Her work opened the door to me that I was meant to enter—the merging of literary allusion, philosophical discourse, and wrestling with the practical world of teaching.

"As I was pounding out my novel many years ago, I was befriended by Peter Nye, a nonfiction writer who had completed a wonderful book on bicycling. He helped me come to terms with myself as a writer. As Peter understood, I write because I have to. In my soul I am a poet (the poems come to me and I must put them on paper) and a writer of prose. That life will filter through me onto paper is a fact of my existence, and I am quite happy with that."