The paper presents a philosophy of education for severely deviant children and adolescents who are brain damaged (severely retarded), mentally ill, or behaviorally uncontrolled. The following are program components: psychologically and educationally sound materials such as programed materials following a life experience approach, operant conditioning procedures in a personal and social environment, and a structured classroom (limited to 15 students with one special education teacher and two trained teacher aides). The three components are compared to the legs of a stool, all of which are necessary if the stool is to stand. It is suggested that materials build upon past experiences so as to capitalize on student preferences for associative rather than cognitive learning. Explicitness is urged in programing, goal setting, and scheduling. The following principles of programed materials are identified as helpful: learn and be rewarded, learn in small steps, actively learn, learn with few or no errors, and learn at your own pace. Operant conditioning techniques are said to be important for gaining the control necessary for learning. The following aspects of F. Hewett's engineered classroom are discussed briefly: developmental sequence (attention, response, order, exploratory, social, mastery, achievement), learning triangle (task, reward, structure), classroom design, scheduling, and record keeping. (GW)