In this article, the author shares her mother's teaching career without any college education or teacher training and discusses what it conveys about teachers who are not fully certified. While the author favors more traditional paths to teaching, culminating in full certification, she admits that there are other viable options. Just as 60 years ago when her mother was hired, the author suggests that schools that are not able to attract and keep a staff of fully certified teachers may resort to hiring provisionally certified or uncertified personnel. However, before schools resort to the tactic of employing persons who are not fully certified, all efforts should be made to "cast a wider net" in order to hire the best new teachers. (Contains 7 endnotes.)