The results of Osgood's Semantic Differential Scale, administered to 81 teachers, revealed that teachers saw themselves as "fair, alert, active, good" and, above all, "clean." The fact that these teachers were inclined to see Mexican American, black, and Caucasian students in much the same light (making only minor discriminations between ethnic groups) is interpreted as evidence of the tendency of teachers to project middle-class values onto their perceptions of students. This perception of children, in a similar pleasant and desirable image, but, significantly, not quite as desirable or pleasant, suggests that the teacher wants and needs the children to become as he or she would like to be, i.e., middle-class. (KG)