slavery?

The main subject of my Transcendentalism class is the concept of Idealism and choosing a life that is not based on materialism of conformity but on what on your personal truth is based on. I have been struggling with being in school this semester. Most of the time I don't feel that I belong here. Something that I have been thinking about is how choosing a higher education for the sake of my personal and mental development is still choosing slavery. Do we choose education as a means to attain freedom later in life, that of financial freedom and freedom of choice of careers? Do we go to school primarily because it is expected of us and so we convinve ourselves that this is really the choice that is best suited for our personal endeavors and our individual ideal life? For me, I think I am mostly in school, despite that fact that I truly appreciate my privilege and want to be educated, is it more based on fear, that I may one day regret not earning a degree? Do I need a degree to get a good paying job so I can buy a farm later in life? Is that not slaving away for the hope that freedom may one day come because I have earned it by the sweat of my brow? No one should have to earn freedom.
Just food for thought.

"It is a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calcuable period, but we would preserve the true course."

"Most of the stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself alive."

Walden
Thoreau