Many of the social reasons that prompted certain people to choose teaching careers in the past, when the only options available to them were bleak in comparison, are no longer valid. Talented people who enter teaching must now do so out of a positive attraction to teaching. Unfortunately, teaching has few positive attractions and those few it does have are relatively unimportant when contrasted with the attractions of other occupations. Public education cannot overcome the relatively deprived status the occupation imposes on present and prospective members until and unless comprehensive and fundamental changes occur in the way teachers are educated, evaluated, trained, motivated, and rewarded. Such changes cannot occur in one sector of the educational establishment (e.g., teacher education) without corresponding changes in the other sectors of the educational establishment (e.g., teacher certification, teacher compensation, and systems for evaluating and rewarding teachers). This paper describes some of these conditions and suggests ways in which these might be changed. (JD)