The central thesis of this paper is that the equitable and humane society has a moral obligation to provide is members with developmental assistance in acquiring those transactional competencies necessary for reconciling personal needs with societal expectations and for discovering meaning in their lives through their essential life roles as workers, family members, learners, consumers, citizens, and culture bearers. The author claims that education for today's world must be life-centered and life-long. What is needed is a dynamic relationship between learning and life. The life-centered curriculum must focus on that point where the individual interacts and transacts with the environment. The author recommends the establishment of a competency-based curriculum leading to an associate degree in Life-Centered Education. The units of the curriculum would be built around the essential life roles of individuals in the community. Life-centered education would be concerned with ways that the individual might express his/her individuality and autonomy while making the necessary transactions within pervasive life roles. Methods of curriculum implementation, including selecting the target groups and training community college personnel to act as advisory groups, are included. (DC)