Why fifth graders need to study American history

I teach American history to my fifth graders. At the beginning of each year I give my students a pretest to see what they already know. I always have a chuckle over some of the answers I get. Here are some of them from my class this year. They took the pretest today.

Who fought in the Revolutionary War?
Answer: The Republicans and Democrats
Who won the war?
Answer: Republicans

What was the cause of the Civil War?
Answer: to get our land back from France

How did Abraham Lincoln die?
Answer: three of my students said that he was at the movies, and was shot

Who fought in the Revolutionary War?
Answer: George Bush
Who won?:
Answer: USA

Who was the first president of the United States:
Answer: two of the students said - George W. Bush
three of my students said - Abraham Lincoln

Approximately what year was America discovered by Christopher Columbus?
Answer: 1992.

And my personal favorite -
Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July?
Answer: when the pioneers came here and thought that it was Africa

And this is one of the reasons I love teaching!

This comment came up today in my class, as well. We were previewing our social studies book and looking at all of the presidents. The last president in our book was Bill Clinton. I asked the students who was missing. They all could tell me George W. Bush. But then one little boy spoke up and said that Obama was missing too. The boy next to him told him that Obama wasn't president yet. The first boy was shocked. He thought for sure that Obama was our president!