Parts played by classroom teachers, school administrators, and students in the public schools' performance of three surrogatory roles have become indeterminate and fuzzy. Criteria related to in loco parentis, reinforcement of professed community values, and transmission of the culture of the arts and sciences no longer go without saying. The situation is similar in the domain of authority in the schools. The change in the schools from intellectual to political and administrative authority is not as yet common knowledge. The basis of authority to determine the contents and teaching of the curriculum does not go without saying. Teachers' status as pedagogical professionals is similarly unclear and uncertain. Institutions preparing classroom teachers are caught between two demands: (1) that of the academics who deny the need of any specialized professional work to teach, and (2) that of the schools pleading for "how-to" survival kits of competencies. Between these two there is little room for genuinely professional preparation of teachers. On the other hand, it goes without saying certainly that the public school teacher's lot is not a happy one. (RH)