Joseph Graves

Joseph Graves is the Secretary of Education for the State of South Dakota. Prior to that, he served as superintendent of schools in Mitchell, South Dakota for more than twenty years. He has been a superintendent, principal, and teacher for the last thirty-seven years. In addition to education and the social studies, which he taught, he also studied philosophy as both an undergraduate and a graduate student. He turned away from academic philosophy in graduate school but has read widely in the field ever since.

Like most educators, he failed to appreciate in advance the full negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on students, teachers, and schools. When the disastrous consequences arrived, he turned to philosophy in general—and the Stoics in particular—for a means of perspective, relief, and solution. The result is this book.

Graves divides his time between Pierre, SD, and Mitchell. He and his wife, Cheryl, have four children and ten grandchildren, about whom he is anything but stoic. He is a permanent deacon of the Roman Catholic Church. As superintendent, he wrote a semi-weekly column for the local newspaper, the Mitchell Daily Republic. The articles always touched on education and frequently seemed to stray into topics philosophic.

Renewing the Joys of Teaching: How the Principles of Stoicism can Return Fulfillment to the Classroom is his first published book.