What are the schools teaching?

I am a little concerned about what is being taught in our schools, this past Independence Day, one of my teenagers asked "What is this holiday for, is it something someone made up so we could light fireworks?" So I sat down all three teenagers and asked them why this holiday was significant. Their replies a) we won a war with Greece b) we won a war with Mexico c) I think we signed a piece of paper was it the Emancipation Proclamation. So that day we had a holiday class. Then later on while watching a game show the question was asked "Which state is east of the Mississippi River Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas or Illinois?" Not one of my kids could answer that. Is it me or is the public education in this town and this country going down hill? I am starting to believe longer school days or hours wont work if our kids are not being taught the basics. What is your opinion?

This attitude is a big part of the problem. It is too easy to push blame to schools and teachers instead of taking responsibility for your kid’s lack of basic learning. It cannot be wise to rely so heavily on schools to program children, instead of providing the necessary structure at home, where they spend most of their time and develop the biggest part of their values. If kids are constantly pre-occupied with TV, movies, video games, recreational internet use, etc, then blaming schools and teachers is simply an excuse. Seriously, what do you think has changed more since we were students – the material being taught to the student or the amount of outside influence the student is exposed to? Kids today are exposed to an average of 5000 advertisements per day – they are bombarded from every possible angle.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/me...
Clearly, the basic material being taught is not what has changed. In fact, I doubt it has changed much at all.

I have friend who has a 6th grade son, tonight while at his house his son was sitting in front of the big screnn TV, laptop in lap, cell phone in hand texting........need I say more?
I should sign on to facebook and ask him if Illinois is on the east or west side of the Muississippi river.

My kids get 1-2 hours of television, computer, and telephone time a day which is after they get their homework done. The rest of the time is study time except for weekends, to which they are mostly outside playing. My wife and I are very educated and multiple degrees, and even help our kids with their homework so don't solely blame everything on the parents.

Your teenagers use all but 1 to 2 of there weekday hours at home studying?
So your contention is that the schools aren't teaching kids basic history lessons (like the original significance of the 4th of July) and they're not teaching the very most basic lessons in geography (like which states are east of the Mississippi River)???
Admittedly, I'm not familiar with what goes on in schools, but its a pretty good bet that the required learning includes those things.