A member of the literacy professoriate, it is expected, has undertaken a program of preparation that leads to a breadth and depth of professional knowledge supporting a career of impactful scholarship along with the training of future generations of literacy teachers, specialists, and often professors. Yet, while current members of the literacy professoriate, as well as those individuals preparing for a life in the academy, may have undergone or are undertaking what appears to be a rigorous program of study, the historical and the historiographic foundations for literacy have been in far too many cases overlooked. This article discusses the problem and offers suggestions for alternative manners by which to deliver the role of history in the preparation of future members of the profession and the professoriate.