Among the dualisms plaguing contemporary educators are the separation between preservice and inservice education, the obscurity between noninstructional and instructional tasks, and the issues of certification and professionalism. Those tasks which relate to or involve learners in any way are "instructions," and the "educational worker" involved with children to the extent that he has the opportunity to influence behavior in some way is a "teacher" whether he is aide, assistant, student teacher, tutor, full-time instructor, or specialist. Standards in the professional lives of educational workers should be focused upon and raised in four areas: (1) identification of talent, recruitment, and selection; (2) initial preparation as well as retraining, with the artificial distinction between preservice and inservice eliminated; (3) working conditions, such as work loads, numbers of students, length of school day, planning periods, and the total school environment; and (4) retention of educational workers as careerists through raising standards of salary and benefits. The most meaningful kind of certification is "specialty certification," i.e., for an area of preparation (science, mathematics, elementary education) rather than levels (provisional, standard, advanced). The "professional" is one who receives adequate remuneration for the services he performs--and he should be paid on the basis of experience and education, not on that of observable performance or level of responsibility. (JS)