What's wrong with education in America?

[Almighty Colin]

New Gallup poll

Who were we fighting on D Day?
(% who gave the correct answer)

Age 18-29 47%
Age 30-49 62%
Age 50-64 75%

I view World War II as the most important "event" of the 20th century. Today, not even half of 20 year olds can answer the question above. What's going on here?

A few months ago I looked at my sister's American History book and was more impressed than I thought I would be. I wouldn't blame it on the textbooks - if hers is any indication.

My personal experience in high school is that the teachers were dreadful and didn't motivate me. I also taught for a year and discovered that students were easily motivated and interested in learning when I cared enough to make it interesting for them.

Anyone have kids in school now? What're their experiences? What are your experiences with it?

Another interesting thing. I asked my sister some basic world geography questions and she didn't know the answers. Now, she is an excellent student, a 3.8 average but something is going wrong somewhere.