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While it's true that public schools in the US have declined precipitously in the last two decades, the question asked of students in the segment shown was more emblematic of the weaknesses of traditional teaching than of the school system itself. Knowing the first five presidents' names in order is not a precondition of personal happiness or even prosperity. It is simply a fact that may be googled when needed.
A better example from the history discipline would have been an open-ended question such as, "In what ways have ordinary people become more or less free over the last [5,50,500] years?" That would show knowledge that the students could actually use in their day-to-day political, social, and economic lives.
