Are we dumbing down education?

As I look back on classes when I was little I can remember being taught things necessary for life and in such a constant flow that it stuck with you for the rest of you life, we would be taught how to actually read and break down stories, taught how to figure out math problems in a way that made it simple and fun, and taught to be the best that we could be. Unfortunately as time passed you can see how all of younger siblings and relatives lack all of those essentials that should have been picked up a long time ago. I remember being in high school last year and I went to an alternative school where those who cannot function in a normal learning environment are sent and in my class I was with kids from all the different high schools in the Peoria area. Only after being in an English class with these individuals did I learn that a large number of these kids were barely reading at a high school level which normally would shock anybody, except if you ask any kid anymore teachers don't teach instead they handout worksheets that you don't understand only to sit at their desk and get paid and won't even help you when you actually need it. In most cases they put on an unrelated Disney movie and let you go about your day and I feel as a movie is good on rare occasions every other week is ridiculous when our kids are practically illiterate. So all I can say is we need to pick up and restructure our educational systems because its painfully obvious how far behind we are on an intellectual standpoint.