Few educational issues have received more attention in recent times than the problem of ensuring that the U.S.'s elementary and secondary classrooms are all staffed with quality teachers. Although ensuring that the nation's classrooms are all staffed with quality teachers is a perennially important issue in schools, it is also among the most misunderstood. This misunderstanding centers on the supposed sources of the problem--the reasons behind the purportedly low quality of teaching in American schools--and has undermined the success of reform efforts. Underlying much of the criticism and reforms is a series of assumptions and claims as to the sources of the problems plaguing the teaching occupation. In this chapter, the author focuses on four of these claims. He reviews each of the views and explains why he believes each provides an inaccurate explanation of the problems plaguing the teaching occupation. He then offers an alternative hypothesis to explain the problems undermining the quality of teachers and teaching.