The bit about not knowing or caring about whether the earth moved around the sun or vice versa reminded me of a survey of Japanese school systems.
The students all made great grades and were very sharp when it came to math but an unusually high percentage did not know the earth orbited the sun and believed that the sun only rose in the east on the northern hemisphere. They believed the sun must rise in the west on the southern hemisphere.
These were college students at that.
In some cases they found that the elementary schools there had never even mentioned these things. They focused on preparation for higher learning and ignored completely the basics.