New Trier: training for businessmen

This morning in advisory, we played a guessing game where we guessed which advisee wrote what about themselves in a survey we took last week.  One of the questions in the survey asked what we wanted to do as a profession once we graduate college.  It was interesting to find I was one of three people who doesn't want to practice law and/or go into business.  After all the diversity of classes at our high school, I was amazed at the number of people who wanted to follow in same footsteps as their parents.  This seems to be an area where no progress is being made, following in someone's footsteps and finding a job that you know will pay no matter what, instead of finding something you truly want to do.  Maybe I'm bring judgmental and people are truly interested in business, but I personally want to try and do something different, something that will keep me interested.  I'm taking my 4th year of Spanish now, and knowing a second language opens a world of opportunities.  I feel like we should be trying to expand our interests out instead of digging deeper in.  In a country where having an education is a necessity for success and a necessity to make it into the secret society of America's upper class, it's interesting how many kids who took part in this survey are interested in the same things as their parents, not thinking about anything outside the bubble we live in.  The specific type of education sought out begs the question if having an education puts you at an advantage, or if having a specific type of education, such as attending a law school, is the only way to be at an advantage.  This two-sided situation makes me wonder truly about America's ideals.  It's the land of freedom, yet for most of it's history many people had slaves.  It's the land of equality, yet all the founding founders and most of the presidents have been upper-class and of great wealth.  So is an education valued?  Or is it only top-tier education that is respected amongst the American population?