Adults, whatever their competence, are not obsolete. Education for adults is the font we must draw on to make possible the new environment in education that we call lifetime learning and recurrent education. Following the lead of Europe in planning broad-based adult education programs, the United States has begun to fund and operate diversified programs. The Adult Education Division of the Office of Education, in a recent study, has identified the minimal needs in all literacy areas for an American adult. Acknowledging that the average reading and computational ability of adults was found to be at the five-year level, we must begin to address the special problems of the functionally undereducated. We must understand the adult student's goals, supply the basic tools within the specific work and cultural setting, and create habits of life-long learning. If we are to make life-long learning and recurrent education more than a token, American education institutions must become open-ended, built around competency based modules or units of learning. We must include coping skills as well as job skills, the humanities as well as vocational training. All facets of learning are necessary to make the whole person and the whole life. (Author/MH)