I don't think education has gotten worse, I just think priorities have changed. In the past, if you didn't know how long a rod was, you were screwed, Unless you happened to live near a library and have a couple of spare hours. Nowadays It is easy to find it from pretty much any computer, which are rather more common than libraries - and quicker too. I believe that knowing things is unimportant, but knowing how to find things out is exceedingly important. It is impossible to teach children everything they need to know to be successful in life, but you can teach them how to work it out for themselves.