This discussion of teaching the disadvantaged is based on the conviction that sympathetic respect and the imaginative-creative element in teaching are the most important and efficient ways to develop the capacities of backward children. The first part of the volume is concerned with (1) the teacher's personal problems in approaching backward children, (2) the difficulties of accepting the children and recognizing the social and psychological influences on them, and (3) the students' personal problems as recounted in 19 case histories. The second part presents six rules that teachers should follow; an exercise for developing the students' powers of imaginative creation, together with sample passages of their writing; and lists of books and equipment that the author has found useful in teaching "low-stream" children. Appendices include a discussion of dramatic work with backward children by Geoffrey Hawkes, excerpts from teachers' accounts of their working conditions, and a basic list of books that should be available for English work with backward children. (LH)