kids are being instilled with what appears to be ideas that are no longer
"mainstream" at all
That, however, is normal, even in countries where (unlike in the USA) the
public schools are actually funded so that they actually work. I was still
taught, about 10 years ago, that people were quarreling about whether
*Euglena* was an animal or a plant, with zoologists saying "look, it moves
and eats, it's an animal" and botanists saying "look, it photosynthesizes,
it's a flagellate alga". By then that was several decades out of date, and I
knew it. It was so embarrassing!
And less than 5 years before that, I was taught that mushrooms were plants.
That was out of date by, like, 50 years.