STATE requirements for the certification of teachers, once an effective instrument for establishing and maintaining higher competencies among candidates for teaching posi- tions in secondary schools, have for the most part outlived their usefulness. Originally proposed by educators sincerely inter- ested in placing a properly qualified teacher in each classroom, these requirements assure the public that teachers possess dem- onstrated knowledge in certain fields of scholarship, acquired at approved institutions of higher education and pursued to the level of the Bachelor's degree. Most of the states require that the future teacher should also have passed certain professional courses in pedagogy, supplemented by a more or less intensive experience in practice teaching.