If Only Wishes Could be made of Airplanes

The irony of education is that it takes your youth(almost) in exchange for what? Grades.
And in our sunny little island, grades literally mean money.
Your salary is dependent on your grades.
Yet you spend almost 35k(poly figures) at least for education and you have to slave for another 3-5 years till you've gotten enough money for marriage.

Seeing how one of facebook friend's status reads: "my mum on seeing me so rushed and stress over my essay told me to quit school if i can't handle it -_- i scolded her right away, asking her how can she ask me to give up, shouldn't she encourage me to complete it?? her response, save money what then you go find someone marry -_-"

Perhaps if education finished at 14 and we could all start working by 15, it would an ideal that I look forward to.
Then, people like GJT could really be a young mommy!

Fact of the matter is, what is necessary and what is not?
Is it wrong to specialize at an early age?
When kids were as young as 4, adults used to ask this favorite question of theirs: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Yet, 20 years down the road, these kids have deviated far from what their initial ambitions were. They dwell deeper and deeper into a downward spiral of consumerism and get unknowingly caught up in the rat race.

Or perhaps, is it that the children of our generation that have lost their ambitions?
Their hopes, their dreams, their sense, identity and faith in who they wanted to become?
Ask one in Singapore the 'what-do-they-want-to-be-when-they-grow-up' question and what is the common response you get? "IDK."

Or maybe, it is the grown-ups that have ignored the dreams of their kids and placed them in a cave to show them that such is the only way or perception of who you should be when you grow up.
"Mommy, I want to be a painter when I grow up!"
"No dearie, you should try to be a banker, a lawyer or doctor! Then you'll earn a lot of money like that."
Yes, love, care and concern is evident, but its so protective that it becomes a barrier, constricting the creative space needed to flourish.
The seed kept in the dark, will never grow.