The recent history and present state of linguistics in the English classroom present a dismal prospect. The structural-grammar textbooks of the forties and fifties were inadequate, and the grammars of the sixties, although improved by the influence of Chomsky and his colleagues, are still not as good as they should be. Also of questionable value are the efforts of conferences, curriculum centers, and summer institutes sponsored by the "Establishment." To improve conditions, frank but constructive opposition to current establishment-produced materials and procedures must be made by our best scholars, linguists, and teachers, for teachers themselves must ultimately determine what they are to teach. Simple obstructionism, however, is not the answer. The current emphasis on the importance of language studies requires that teachers decide either to teach the English language and educate themselves for the task or to relinquish the task to someone else. Goals that can be obtained despite the present dearth of adequate language-teaching materials should be made. Among the topics that can be taught well, now, are a scholarly and intelligent traditional grammar, lexicography, history of the language, and dialectology. (JM)