[ardit33]

Apart from the former communist math teaching being much better, I think it is cultural as well.

Being an engineer in a former communist country was (is) a ticket to good life, similar lifestyle to a doctor or a lawyer.

In the US being an engineer is seen as boring, and something only nerdy un-socialable people do. Also there are more attractive alternatives to pursue for smart people in the US.

Basically, it boils down that a society will produce the type of talent that it values (by both training, and steering talented folks to certain disciplines).

I'd say it is the same reason the US sucks at producing soccer talents, event compared to much smaller countries like Croatia or Belgium.

[jrimbault]

On the other hand, a lack of math teachers could be explained because people who have decent math skills can now live off that skill by being an engineer much more easily than before when they would have been math teachers.

[JBlue42]

Anecdotes from growing up in the rural US. In high school:

- We went through three math teachers one year because they could find less stressful, better-paying work as accountants.

- My AP Stats teacher had to work weekends at Best Buy.

[jjeaff]

Anecdote from my rural area. The last few math teachers eventually switched over to being the librarian or home economics teacher. Because it paid exactly the same but the curriculum was much easier to teach and isn't subject to the stresses and rigors of standardized testing.

[Fezzik]

That was my thought. I wonder what the backgrounds are of Russian teachers/professors of mathematics? I do not know oodles of math teachers, but all of my teachers as a kid, and friends who teach math now, received a four year degree on mathematics and went right in to teaching. They were very uninspiring (career-wise) people, with little knowledge of how math is applied outside of a high-school/university context.

[r00fus]

So a society with a paucity of math skilled people means less teachers with math skills which perpetuates the cycle?