The goal of educational programs for educable mentally retarded (EMR) children is to progressively develop socially mature individuals who can think critically and act independently. The major focus is a curriculum that encompasses social and occupational concepts, facts, and behaviors that are consonant with social adaptation during maturation and at maturity. Academic learning is a means to the end. EMR children require daily language arts and arithmetic as communication and social problem-solving tools. All other areas of learning are integral aspects or motivators in social learning and avenues for self-expression. There is a dynamic relationship between the elements of the curriculum and the systematic ways of learning as managed by the teacher. Subject matter determines the characteristics of the teaching-learning transaction or experience and the roles of teacher and student. The categorization of mature retardate behaviors allows categorization of the curriculum into blocks. A three-dimensional model of the developmental curriculum includes: transactions with the interrelated social, psychological, and physical phenomena; and, the vertical progression of maturation or competence through five interrelated environments (self, home and family, neighborhood, community, and extra-community). (SBE)