The nature of teachers' control in classrooms is explored in order: to understand the tension created when noneducators superimpose their rules on the regime of teachers at work and to learn something of a general nature about the antagonism between regulators and those they regulate. Teachers' regulatory powers are based on coercion, exchange, or authority. Coercion heightens antagonism to a regulatory regime in the classroom, whereas exchange (the "purchase" of student compliance) tends to corrupt the regime. The only recourse left is the development of authority--a moralized means of control that transforms teachers' might into right and students' obedience into duty. When outside sources, such as the courts, have an effect on school authority, the moral basis of local classroom authority may be threatened. Outside officials must develop the prudence and eloquence to preserve traditional organizational purposes while imposing new demands. Regulation is political in the sense that it depends on the arts of human control. If regulators, failing to get a workable agreement, use force, they may be turning away from the possibility of ever again cultivating a working agreement. (Author/MLF)