Cubdriver, you're right about adults caring very little for math or science. I believe that is one of the biggest barriers to teaching kids math and science: parents. The basics of math require study and repetition. They aren't the easiest things to learn and very few have a great natural gift for them. But those foundations are crucial to any form of higher math and science.

Unfortunately, when a child says "Math is too hard," or "I suck at math," adults (especially parents) say "It's okay, you won't need math when you grow up" or "well, I was bad at math too, so it's ok." We should encourage our children to do better than we did. Will they all be rocket scientists? No, but what if we let a smart kid with a good future off the hook because math is boring? Shame on us.