The historical background, principles, and practices of two major theories concerning student behavior are described. Theory A is religiously based and can be traced back to the biblical "Garden of Eden." It views human nature as fundamentally evil, the school as a means of both controlling and overcoming the child's innate propensities to wrong-doing, and school officials as morally qualified to be both examples to follow and determiners of reward and punishments for the students entrusted to their care. Theory B conceives human nature as essentially good. It views the school as means to direct that basic goodness and school officials as guides and friends of the students. The implications of each of these theories are examined in the context of overall attitudes toward the problem of student behavior, motives and goals of those responsible for student bahavior, value systems in use, the need for communication, degrees of freedom, theories of counseling, decision-making processes, uses of records and resources, and policies and law. (RM)