Originally Posted by ultramarina
I can't decide if I agree that American culture does not value talent in math. If not, what academic field DOES it value talent in?

This presupposes that it values academic talent at all.

I think Isaac Asimov summed it up pretty well back in January of 1980: "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."