I recently became interested in getting a second degree, in architecture and engineering, based on my interest in interior design/usability. I took College Algebra and Trig, and then looked out over the four more years of pure mathematics before I would be allowed to design and build anything, and I just flat gave up.
In the abstract, I love science. I'm always interested in pop-science books, and I can tell that the "frontiers" of science are really interesting. But there's so much school between here and there! It seems that all the "low-hanging fruit" has been picked, so to get to the really interesting stuff takes at least 4-5 years of study at the college level. Frankly I'm just not willing to put the time in.
Also, your idea about the camp (and how kids must love it) is exactly the opposite of my experience. I had a high school math teacher who expected us to work out how to do it on our own. It infuriated me. "The answer has already been figured out, people know how to do it, why do I have to start from scratch?" It felt like a waste of time. I had been on track to take AP Calc my senior year of high school, but that teacher ensured that I never took another math class for seven years. (I tested out of my college's GenEd requirement.) It wasn't that I disliked figuring out how to do it, exactly... it was that the person sitting in front of me *knew* how to do it, and weren't telling me.
Science
In the abstract, I love science. I'm always interested in pop-science books, and I can tell that the "frontiers" of science are really interesting. But there's so much school between here and there! It seems that all the "low-hanging fruit" has been picked, so to get to the really interesting stuff takes at least 4-5 years of study at the college level. Frankly I'm just not willing to put the time in.
Also, your idea about the camp (and how kids must love it) is exactly the opposite of my experience. I had a high school math teacher who expected us to work out how to do it on our own. It infuriated me. "The answer has already been figured out, people know how to do it, why do I have to start from scratch?" It felt like a waste of time. I had been on track to take AP Calc my senior year of high school, but that teacher ensured that I never took another math class for seven years. (I tested out of my college's GenEd requirement.) It wasn't that I disliked figuring out how to do it, exactly... it was that the person sitting in front of me *knew* how to do it, and weren't telling me.
Anyway. Just my personal experience.