What do they teach these days in school?

I posted before on how I feel the education system is lacking now due to things my son says. Like he learned the term "pork sword" from watching Juno in the sixth grade. Now don't get me wrong. I love that movie. I think Diablo Cody is amazing! My thing is the school could've at least told me that they were going to be watching that movie so if I objected, I could have found something else for him to do. (Even though I wouldn't have objected but that is beside the point.) Last night at dinner, we were talking and he started going off about how Martin Luther King freed the slaves. I looked at him completely dumb founded and asked "Where did you learn that?" He was like "I dunno". He then asked me who did free the slaves and I had to give him a crash course in American History 101 about the Civil War. I asked him what they are learning in history class and he said "Lewis & Clark" Lewis & Clark? He's in eighth grade! I learned that in the third grade! He should at least be into the civil liberties movement and Vietnam by now! I'm not dogging the need to know the history of Lewis & Clark and it's importance but it's not affecting him now and having the impact that the latter mentioned are.

Oh, what I found even more absured is that he is reading Shakespear and I have to sign a permission slip for him to watch A Mid-Summer's Night's Dream and he's in the eighth grade but I didn't have to sign one for him to watch Juno in the sixth. Can someone please explain that to me? Is there something extremely wrong with that or is it just me? I'm really beginning to wonder just how necessary school is when teachers have their hands tied by bureaucratic red tape and aren't allowed to teach anymore. No Child Left Behind needs to be repealed, red pens need to be used for grades and we need to quit being so lovey dovey with our kids. The real world doesn't allow for easily bruised ego's and feelings and unfortunately that is where our kids are heading and they are not going to know how to cope with the real world.