What possibilities of making adequate preparation, are to be found in colleges and universities? And how much preparation is required by the Teacher's Recommendation or other standards of fitness? In search of the answers to our questions, we may study conditions at the University of California, for there is as good opportunity and standards are as high in this school as anywhere in the country. The quantity of preparation is fairly assured by the five-year requirement for the Teacher's Recommendation, but the quality of the preparation is not so certainly assured. With the possible exception of the Education Department, no department considers the training of teachers even nearly equal in importance to the production of specialists in the subject who shall devote their lives to research. The subject is regarded as an end in itself. If a person were directed to make preparation for the teaching of biology, he would be at a loss in searching for the Biology Department, or even a department that gave a good comprehensive course in biology. The subject as best taught in the secondary schools is subdivided into various components, each with its special aim. The prospective teacher has no carefully prepared course of study for his pursuit, as has the prospective doctor, engineer, or farmer. The state provides a specially adapted course of training for its veterinarians, those who care for its livestock. Why not a special course of high standard for those who plan to devote their lives to the direction of the formative years of its children? It is probably explained in large part by the failure to recognize teaching as a profession. The Schools of Education throughout the country have been insisting upon real professional training for teachers but other departments are deplorably slow in cooperating. In order to avoid becoming entangled in abstractions, we may choose a specific instance to show the difficulties in the way of securing the correct _kind_ of preparation, even though the quantity is guaranteed. The Zoology Department (I choose this department neither because it is worse nor better than any other, but because I am better acquainted with the content of its courses) makes the following requirements for the Teacher's Recommendation: General Zoology Invertebrate Zoology -- an advanced course which omits all consideration of insects, and all discussion of parasitic forms. Vertebrate Zoology -- mainly a course in comparative morphology, which gives no field knowledge of California vertebrates, the most essential thing for the high school teacher. and one subject from each of the following groups,