Red Rag, Blue Rag: Classroom Management When Colors Collide

I found one huddled in a corner of the classroom, sobbing, phone firmly fisted in hand. I trailed another out the front door amid sparks of profanity and a vow never to return. I walked a third from the classroom to my office. This teacher with years of experience said to me simply, "They told me they had gotten rid of the last teacher, and now they were going to get rid of me."

They had, and they did.

A professor at the University of Oregon said to me once, "You gotta know the depth of the w...