Towards the end of his tenure as president of Sarah Lawrence College Harold Taylor attacked “the present system of lectures textbooks survey courses standard requirements of subject matter examinations md grades” for failing “to touch the inner consciousness of the student or to dtil with his motivations his emotions his aims ind his needs.” It was a typical call for relevance in education.

What I want to do is examine some of the puzzles and hidden assumptions that attach to the relevance-in-education controversy, We need not raise such misty questions is What is the relevance of relevance? (although this is sometimes done) But it does seem imperative to begin with the basic question: Relevant to what? Taylor's answer to that question would appear clear enough.