In high school he excelled in science and mathematics and won a U.S. Navy scholarship to Purdue University in Indiana, enrolling in 1947.

MSN: First man on moon Neil Armstrong dead at 82

Extensive tutoring is sometimes seen as contributing to East Asian countries' high performance in international school comparisons, particularly in mathematics.

BBC: Meet the 'tutor kings and queens'

Proficiency scores in reading, writing, science and mathematics for American teenagers in their last year of high school all fell between 1992 and 2005.

ECONOMIST: Will reading and writing remain important?

The lead plaintiff in this class action, Van-Ness Crawford, has three sons who are forced to attend a high school at which more than 80% of the students are failing mathematics.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Of the 21 nations participating in all phases of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), American high school seniors did better than only two countries: South Africa and Cyprus.

FORBES: Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, There Goes American Educational Excellence?

As noted above, U.S. 4th graders do fairly well in mathematics and science, but by the time they graduate from high school, U.S. students are nowhere near being "first in the world" in either subject.

UNESCO: II Part Analytic Section

High school is certainly a head-scratcher, no matter how old you are, but the mathematics of social hierarchies can't hold a candle to the mysteries of the buckyball.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 8.4.12: buckyballs, bosons and bodily fluids Alt