> I sinceerly hope I'm wrong, but sometimes I get the impression that the United States is an extremely backward nation.

It's not only your impression. I'm not the only person outside the US that thinks so. This is not a criticism against American people in general, but against those Americans that don't get the message.
United States, as world leaders, have a great responsibility in educating other nations to a set of moral/ethical values that will be their future.
Of course, this is a viewpoint that comes out mostly from my (left-oriented and Communist) political education; I always give to privileged or dominating classes the responsibility to educate lower classes, in a way similar to Marx's thoughts.
If you Americans fail to educate yourselves, you fail to achieve both personal education and the world leadership in favour of emerging countries.

>can't measure using the metric system.
>can't drive a manual transmission

Really?

Anyway, Italy, as I stated after my thread on States and Capitals has the same problems. My mother teaches Art History to kids from 11 to 13 (our secondary or "middle" school), so I have a first-hand viewpoint on them.
Actually, being the son of a teacher and a bookseller (my father was also into politics in the early 70s) I grew up in a particularly good and culturally challenging environment. I had been really lucky and understood early how a good education (which I always try to improve) is a "plus" for my person.

Regards,
AP.