It's true that people no longer value academic achievement
But I think Maths is a special case - there is a kind of tacit agreement that the phrase 'well, nobody really likes maths' will get nods of agreement in most quarters, for no good reason. It's a double-edged sword. People feel no shame in their lack of numeracy, but conversely anyone who studies maths at any higher level is some kind of insane genius with no social skills (and they haven't even met any Trinity Mathmos, for whom this is very true).

I think it's partly the abstraction - people get unnerved
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Mon 5 May 2008, 10:16, Reply)