My People are Destroyed For Lack of Knowledge

I am really depressed right now and something close to a state of shock. Every summer, we have American high school/college age volunteers come in to work with us. They're a good team and we enjoy having them. Tonight we were sitting around in the living room talking and somehow the topic of revolution came up. The offhand quote was made "It'd be just like in 1776."
One 17 year old boy looked confused and then said "wait....what happened in 1776?"
We were shocked and stunned. "You know.....the American revolution....." He still drew a blank. So I asked a quick question. This is exactly how the following conversation went.
"Do you know what year America was founded"
"......"
"We just said it five seconds ago...."
"Oh yeah 1767! I'm bad with dates."
"Clearly. Do you know who the first President was?"
"George Washington"
"OK very good, do you know who wrote the Declaration of Independence?"
"uhhhhhhh.....Teddy Roosevelt?"
"O....M.....G.. Jefferson. THOMAS JEFFERSON."
"Oh right right I heard that before, I think..."
"You think?"
"We havent studied American history yet. All we've done is world history."
"But surely you know the basics...like for instance, who we even fought a revolution against?"
"uhhhhhhh....." he looks around the room and then starts to chuckle nervously.

My blood pressure now has numbers with a comma in it as I remember how earlier he was explaining ancient and modern Chinese history including dates and leaders names as his mom beamed and explained that he goes to Bellevue High School, rated one of the five best high schools in the country.

So let me pause the conversation to interject here. For the record, this is a white American kid, born and raised in the US and going to school in Seattle.

Now I went to Biglerville High School, not the top five of any list you'd be proud to have your school on. We started with American history in second grade. Fourth grade was Pennsylvania history. Sixth, seventh and eighth grade were 19th century US history. Ninth grade was world history, a smattering of Chinese history thrown in with African cultures, etc. Tenth grade was history of Western civilization. Eleventh and Senior year were modern American history, industrial revolution to modern day. As a result of all this, even the most brain dead back birth hicks got a basic grasp on their own country's history and a introduction to other cultures. OK, back to the conversation...

"ENGLAND! JOLLY OLD ENGLAND! King George? Benjamin Franklin? Paul Revere? ANY of this ringing a bell to you?"
"I told you I take US History next year."

"Your school waits until your junior year to give you American history? But spends years first covering Chinese Dynasties and the Cultural Revolution?"

at this point his mom steps in

"You simply can't expect everyone to be as passionate about history as you are."

"o.....m......g."

I get up and leave

"Where are you going?"

"To go cry for a while."