“No, Mum. You’re not stupid. But life is unfair.”
Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
the world was exactly as they expected
exactly as they knew it to be
and mostly not as it could have been
or should have been
spring was pretty much spring
and summer was pretty much summer
as was winter and tumbling fall
dawn was always dawn
and day was always day
as was dusk and certainly night
and while children starved
and women bled, battered and bruised
some men pondered over $5000 suits
and a different shirt and tie each day
all in all everyone frantically did everything they could
and of course they did nothing at all
the world was exactly as they expected
exactly as they knew it to be
and mostly not as it could have been
or should have been
—P.L. Thomas
Published by plthomasedd
P. L. Thomas, Professor of Education (Furman University, Greenville SC), taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal (National Council of Teachers of English), current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Brill), and author of Teaching Writing as Journey, Not Destination: Essays Exploring What ‘Teaching Writing’ Means (IAP, 2019) and How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP, in press). NCTE named Thomas the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He co-edited the award-winning (Divergent Book Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies Research) volume Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America (Brill, 2018). Follow his work @plthomasEdD and the becoming radical (http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/).
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