The search for relevance is an illusion

The question that often arises at conferences, seminars, meetings, and even at an ordinary gathering of Doctors, not of medicine but of education, is, "Are the subjects, say, history, offered at our schools are still relevant?"

The search for relevance, however, is an illusion, said Jacques Barzun. One who undertakes to find an answer to that question here or in the nether world will be frustrated, for relevance is "not a property of things, but a relationship in the mind."

Relevance exists only in the mind, not in the things outside the mind. There is therefore no such thing as inherently relevant or irrelevant. For instance, history in itself is neither relevant nor irrelevant. It only becomes relevant if the student of history plans to use his knowledge of history in understanding his present situation.