The Beijing-based China Youth Daily reported in its April 4 edition a survey of more than 1,300 primary and middle school students conducted by media in the northwestern city of Urumqi, showing that 53 per cent of respondents said they most want to be private enterprise bosses and entrepreneurs when they grow up, and only 10 per cent of the students said they want to be "workers". The reason the students cited was that bosses have high salaries which allow them to live a comfortable, high-quality life, and they have much "face" in the eyes of others. By contrast, for blue-collar workers, work is dirty, tiring, and not very well-paid, and they are looked down upon as lesser people.

This survey has provided a great deal of food for thought, and the preferences revealed in this survey are by no means fortuitous. The craving for money and power has become a common feature of our society today. In the eyes of many adults, material wealth is everything. In a social climate like the one we currently live in, children are inevitably affected by the prevailing social values. Moreover, for a long time our society has held prejudiced views of industrial workers because their work and living conditions are relatively poor. Naturally, most students prefer well-paid jobs such as those of private enterprise bosses to work in a factory, and most parents don't steer their children towards blue-collar occupations either.

Under the influence of this social climate and atmosphere, most students naturally opt for higher rather than vocational education. As a result, more and more young people are pouring into universities, while vocational-technical schools find it increasingly difficult to get enough enrollment.

While the number of college students is growing by leaps and bounds, it has become increasingly difficult for college graduates to find jobs right out of school, and many remain unemployed for long periods. On the other hand, in China there is such a great demand for technical workers that many technical school students already have jobs lined up prior to graduation. In fact, China is facing a serious shortage of technical workers, especially those with high-level skills. This has become a bottleneck in the course of the country's economic development.

Some college graduates are responding to market demand by attending technical schools that offer more useful kinds of professional training so they can adjust their skills to suit the job market. This can solve their employment problems on one hand and alleviate the shortage of senior-level blue-collar workers on the other hand.

However, the fact that college grads must undergo further training at tech schools is a thought-provoking phenomenon that illustrates the necessity of reconciling ideals with reality.

Having a high ideal is a good thing. A man's conduct naturally shapes itself according to the ideas in his mind, and nothing contributes more to success in life than having a high ideal and keeping it constantly in view. However, there is always a considerable distance between ideals and reality. Given this gap, one must take reality into account and know how to temper dreams with reality. Many great bosses started their careers as workers in factories and subsequently started their own businesses. From this perspective, we can see that knowing how to blend dreams with reality can help turn dreams into reality.