This article is written (like that of Carpenter, 1984) from my personal experience, in two schools for children with severe learning difficulties, of coordinating a Staff Curriculum Development Group using theSkills Analysis Model (SAM)(Gardner, Murphy, and Crawford, 1983). The aim here, however, is to illustrate reservations about the use of aSAMor “son ofSAM” approach in such schools and to indicate possible alternative emphases.The point of view is expressed thatSAM, and other behavioural objectives models, can lead to an unrealistic imbalance with an emphasis on what is being taught rather than what is being learned: approaches which ultimately degrade the learner, the teacher, and the learning proc