Also the reason that schooling all the way up to high school teaches you such a wide variety of things is to give you a good foundation upon which you can then learn more specialized things depending on what you end up doing.
In a broader sense, in democratic countries it's meant to give people equal opportunities. Or looking at it from another direction, it helps to make sure talented people end up where they benefit the national economy the most. A person with the potential for rocket science could end up working in a job requiring mainly physical labour if they had no chance to notice their own talent.
On the other hand, in democracies a basic level of education also makes better voters. If we look at Mikan here, once she turns 18 and if she had remained a shut-in, how could she decide whom to vote? Probably a decision based purely on social media. The worst method ever to choose a candidate, if indeed she had bothered to vote at all.
