[OldFriend]

There is another part of this story.

Teachers in grade school are incapable of teaching math and science. Therefore, students don't get interested, feel incompetent (because they are) and choose other fields.

As for high school math and science teachers, they have long since left the profession for jobs in other fields.

[looscnnn]

"Therefore, students don't get interested, feel incompetent (because they are) and choose other fields."

No, they think they are going to be rap artists, NBA or NFL players and could care less about getting an education.

[hedgie]

This is still the big picture. The two countries poised to be the 21st century's biggest technological powers have been utilizing our peerless graduate departments of natural science and engineering to train a generation of leaders. Don't be fooled by anecdotes about some Visual Basic programmers getting laid off. This is still the future. We want our kids in there keeping up.

This is the new Sputnik.