The traditional role of education has been to transfer knowledge and culture from generation to generation. Formal education began from the need to train skilled workers in an industrial society. Today we face the need to develop a work force that can function effectively in a society built on technology. Students must learn to reason and think critically about the world in which they live. We must educate our children to become independent learners with an intellectual curiousity and the ability to locate, evaluate, process and synthesize information and data. In this global world of communication and culture, only the most prepared will thrive. Never has education played a more significant role than it does today.