The purpose of this action study was to examine teachers' beliefs about the causes of stress and burnout in a rural Arkansas school district in 2004. One hundred thirty teachers of all grade levels of the school district were sampled with a Likert survey of 45 items. Subscales of the survey include stressor associated with administration, stressors associated with students, job satisfaction, professional self-esteem, and demographic information about the participants. Results indicated that overall respondents were very positive about being teachers; given the opportunity, almost 79% would choose teaching again as a career. Negatives included anxieties about student violence as expressed by a majority of teachers on three of the 45 items, and that the teachers believed that teaching is not respected by those outside the profession. The researchers concluded that overall the teachers in the district had very positive attitudes about teaching. Recommendations included (1) that the administration as teachers what works with students instead of asking textbook companies and administration (2) encouraging teaching input into curricular decisions (3) holding students and parents accountable for student achievement (4) making professional development opportunities more relevant. (Contains 1 table.)