What do you see as the purpose of education? Why might innovation be crucial in education? In my head it's hard to come up with the 'purpose' of education because it seems like such an enormous idea that encompasses so much more than classrooms, books, and tests. I'll do my best, but forgive the run-on sentences that may follow. I think the purpose of education is to help students reach their potential. I think educators are required to challenge students to prepare themselves for both the known and unknown. Learners must be provided a safe place to take risks, ask questions, search for answers, share opinions, fail, and try again. The purpose of education is to empower those that feel powerless, to help them see that their circumstances don't define them, and that they can find a better way. I think education should encourage problem, ideas, and solutions and embrace new ways to do things. Our job as educators is to provide an environment in which