Public education has both political, or social, and personal, or self-improvement objectives; in addition it provides much of the moral quality of a democratic society. Each function--personal, political, and moral--has special significance for continuing education. Adults continue their education to update their job skills or to seek satisfaction in the use of leisure time. Yet the less obvious relationship betweeen continuing education and the political and moral characteristics illuminates some of its distinctive aspects. Its position outside the central concerns of most schools has been both cause and effect of its special quality and contributions. Its spirit of immediacy, directness, and relevance inspires a mode of examination and questioning most essential in our mass society. The Continuing Education Center for the Public Service at Syracuse University has been called the "social conscience" of the University. The Center approach--concern for real social problems, involvement of clientele and faculty, use of participatory training methods, flexibility in time and place, and relevance--these factors characterize program development at the Center for businessmen, government officials, social planners, poor people, minorities, or any identifiable group of adults. (Author)