In the Pokemon world, it seems that kids tend to leave home once they’re out of primary school. I’m wondering what your take on that is. Does every kid go on a journey at that age, or just those who are particularly motivated? Do kids who don’t leave home keep attending regular school, to obtain pokemon related jobs? What about university? The entire educational system of their world has always left me baffled, so I’d like to know what your thoughts are.

Strange, isn’t it?  I suspect what keeps the whole system from falling apart is that “Pokémon Trainer,” aside from being a sport, is also a perfectly legitimate occupation.  Pokémon are integral to many aspects of their society and you can find Pokémon workers in almost any major sector; without their powers, several industries would have to be reinvented from the ground up.  Given this kind of reliance on Pokémon, I think perhaps the benefits of having a large class of readily available specialists in dealing with Pokémon might outweigh the need for universal high-school education.  I doubt all or even most kids become full-time trainers; in fact I suspect that most Pokémon trainers come from families with a history of working closely with Pokémon (Ash’s father was a powerful trainer, Gary’s grandfather is a researcher, Misty’s sisters are all trainers, Brock’s parents are both trainers, May and Max are the children of a Gym Leader, and so on and so forth).  Hundreds of years ago, these people would have been a wealthy aristocracy who were responsible for creating this Pokémon-centric society in the first place, made up of the people who had enough land and money to support large numbers of Pokémon who were trained solely for combat.  Today anyone can enter this class, though people with the family traditions are more likely to do so.