You're complaining that your kid didn't do division in second grade? Wowzers, my school didn't do division until the latter part of fifth grade, and that seemed perfectly fine to me. I think in second grade we were working on subtraction. I can divide just fine.
I'm generally the last person to defend American public school, but it seemed to me that my schools (in Arizona, which I hear is rated the worst state education-wise) did in fact present us with all the important "academic" information. The problems with it were:
1) It was one big pre-made package for 13 years. One size fits most. Yeah, there were classes for the "gifted" and classes for the "learning disabled" and eventually a bunch of optional classes... but if someone wanted to learn division at age 5 and wait a few years to worry about reading, he's out of luck.
2) Some students were unable or unwilling to absorb the information given to them. People were definitely told how to figure out 15% of 100!
3) So much wasted time. TONS of repeated info, downtime in class, classroom management stuff like attendance or lining up to go to change rooms, etc. I think I could have gotten my entire 13-year-long education in five years or less if I'd had a private tutor coming to my home.
4) Lack of not-so-academic critical life skills.
But it seems like any education reform discussions don't address all this stuff, especially #3.
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