Two areas--understanding what rural education is and what its real needs are--are critical in preparing educators, specifically language arts educators, for a rural setting. Although the problems facing these teachers are many, minimal preparation and training at the college level deal with the rural setting. Mainly due to funding, modern technology and resources are not generally available--and the rural language arts teacher must be more imaginative, have more initiative, and be able to work with people, for a class to be successful. Salary (often below the norm), location (frequently isolated), and role (the rural educator must often perform many functions) also have an effect. The rural educator may only have a few who want/need advanced courses, resulting in a narrow curriculum and more pressure to individualize instruction for these students. Schools often stick with the traditional, and are wary of new teachers with different ideas. The following may be useful in meeting the needs of rural educators: establishing university contact persons interested in developing rural education; area consortiums of rural language arts teachers; advisory boards at the state, local, and federal levels; incentives, grants, and programs; technology sharing; computer networking; and working with rural organizations. (JMM)