Met a friend who's been a kindergarten teacher in NYC schools, like, forever.  She said each year's class gets dumber and dumber.  This year she has to teach them their names.  They thought their names were, "hey, you", or, worse.  She also spent weeks on 'remedial page turning'-they never saw a book before.  And these are not special ed kids.  I thought it was both very funny and very sad.