John Hamby was raised during a time when racial segregation was enforced legally and socially in the south. He was a high school teacher and an elementary school principal in the sixties when South Carolina operated under a freedom of choice plan. He holds a Ph. D. in psychological foundations of education. In addition to his public school experience, he was a college professor and assistant director of a national dropout prevention center. Most of his previous written work is of a technical nature, including Straight Talk about Discipline, Developing a Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan: