Education--School's Fault?

All the time you hear how it is the school's fault that Johnny or Sally isn't learning anything in school, that teachers aren't teaching the kids anything, that they are failing tests. The old adage--"you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it" applies here.
It is not an academic problem entirely, but a cultural-social one. To find the answer all one has to do is find out what the kids do know--they know plenty--but it isn't stuff taught in school curriculums. Ask a kid about Pop stars, movies, sports, MTV, songs, clothes, iPods, and a lot of other things that I'm out of touch on, and he/she could tell you a lot about those subjects, but not about history, english, math, geography and the like.
Our society (U.S.) has "channeled" learning to what "it" feels is important, and you can lay the blame mostly on "corporate America" propaganda for that. We are constantly being bombarded with the "message" that to be "cool" you got to buy the latest line of clothes, gadgets, drinks, food, deodorant, lip-stick, car and... you get the idea. The "heroes" of our society are basketball, football players, actors, actresses, singers--all non-academics. Academics are nerds, egg-heads, or generally way down the line for someone to be. But how to solve the problem of kids not "knowing" what they are supposed to know?
Giving teachers more money, testing, buying more computers, etc. is not going to "solve" the problem. Somehow the "desirable" image we want our kids to be needs to be turned around--from the now jerky iPod wearing freak to a more serious sedate intellectual image maybe? The real heroes of our society have been people like Dr. Salk, who has saved millions by the Polio vaccine, A. Einstein, E=mc2, and the like.
Our society ignores the real heroes, who work tirelessly behind the scenes, yet lauds the frivilous "non-heroes", rewarding them with riches and acclaim way beyond what they deserve.
To "see" where the "emphasis" lies in our lives check out what symbols people wear on their shirts, caps, jackets, and the like. These things are what we really hold dear to our hearts--and it isn't "education".
By placing importance on frivilous things we are ignoring and not placing emphasis on math, history, english and the like.
Other cultures, who do place importance on education, do not have the problems that we do in getting kids to learn. They teach more with much less. In fact even in our own country those ethnic groups, such as Asians and East Indians, do much better than other groups. Genetic? No, cultural. You can't blame it all on "bad-neighborhoods" either. Are the libraries full--or the basketball courts in those neighborhoods? Kids have plenty of time on their hands; they just aren't using it right.