It&#x27;s very sad how many people (both male and female) I knew growing up were &quot;extremely good at math and science&quot; until they ran headlong into anti-intellectual American high school culture. I saw people who loved science fiction spiral into useless party culture and end up with unfulfilling low-value service jobs. That&#x27;s a tremendous waste of talent, and I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s very much a gender issue.<p>I favor an approach where we separate kids who&#x27;ve shown some aptitude for the sciences and concentrate them in schools full of their peers. We can&#x27;t do anything for the anti-intellectual types, but we can at least stop their ruining perfectly good raw talent.