The Graves of Academe

The Graves of Academe – Richard Mitchell

Richard Mitchell (1929 - 2002) was an English and classics prof at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. He was well-known in the early days of zines as The Underground Grammarian, who scolded the users of unclear English. A publisher persuaded him to collect the best articles for a book. While contemplating which pieces to include, he realized that many examples of illogical English and “mendacious gobbledygook” were from administrators, professor-advisors, and graduates of teachers' colleges.

The resulting book is an attack on American schools of education. His thesis was that the teacher training institutions were so focused on faddish educational theories and “student outcomes” such as “the fulfillment of human potentialities” that they didn’t care if its graduates could read or write or cipher much less show a mastery of their “subject areas” of arithmetic or physics or what we now call "language arts."

Mitchell argues that “As long as we remain a constitutional republic, we cannot ever be both educated and unfree,”  assuming that “educated” means knowledgeable and thoughtful enough to apply the “informed discretion” of Thomas Jefferson. These days not only do our state and federal governments “reflect the ignorance and unreason of the popular will” but we may not even be able to defend ourselves. This from a Thomas Ricks piece, “I'm talking about contractors, some of whom were literally paid ten-fold the salary of my junior Marines, who were incapable of performing basic tasks and functionally illiterate.”

Mitchell writes with skeptical wit, dash, and scorn for the educationists who are quick to call themselves "professionals." Though this book was published in 1981 – I was a kinda sorta a grad student then – it still has relevant things to say as American education deals with violence, religion, and technology in the classroom, to name just a few.