I completely agree with everything you have written here, it is funny to see all the things that I have thought about be put into words by someone else!

I also had studied Theoretical Physics and my father was a Mathematician, however now I work as a musician. But I do find it still engaging to tutor students (instead of teaching violin...). I find that somehow, many people shoot themselves at the starting line, by having some sort of ingrained notion that Science is impossible/difficult/not for them... or that they can't see how it would ever be useful to them... or that it isn't so mind-blowingly amazing and elegant and beautiful...

Part of it, I think, is the way it is taught at schools... I'm not sure why, but it appears (in general) to have sapped the wonder and beauty from the subject and to have turned it into a rote method of right and wrong... Which couldn't be further from the truth, it is an exhilarating exploration of the unknown with no map and no compass with only experiment, observation and mathematics as your guide.

Anyway, I think I'm blathering now...