Little people from space and eagle ducks

OK, so it's official... our educational system is either completely broken, or I have God like intelligence.

I overheard two of the most shocking things ever said today. Firstly, some of my employee's were talking about the meteor shower last night and somebody who shall remain nameless (not an employee), chimed in and asked;
"Meteor's? Those are the little people from space, right?"
I stepped in and said to this (non-employee, that would be to embarrassing);
"No, meteors are what we see when objects enter our atmosphere."
To this she responded by informing me that...
"There aint no little people in my atmosphere... I lock my doors at night."
At this point I had completely lost all faith in humanity and I just knew that we would all die in a fiery ball of stupidity. Ever the educator, I tried again.
"Meteors are not little people, they are kind of like comets that fall from space."
And...her reply... drum roll please...
Laughing hysterically, "There aint no comets in space, they aint got no wings... wait... did our spacemen put some comets up there?"

And then, less than two hours later I over hear a person having a conversation about their trip to Blue Lake this last weekend.
"It was real nice, lots of shade, and the eagle ducks were amazing..."
Eagle ducks? I had to intervene.
"Excuse me, did you say eagle duck?"
"Yup."
"What pray tell is an eagle duck?"
The person in question looked at me like I was nuts and endeavored to educate me.
"Eagle ducks are ducks that have babies with eagles so we can eat them at Thanksgiving time."
What the heck! After hearing this explanation, I very nearly went home to grab my riffle and go Jeremiah Johnson up in the mountains. But it gets better.
"I think you mean Turduken, but they aren't real animals, you know that, right?"
"Nope Ive seen Turdukens before, at the zoo, these were eagle ducks."

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am buying a helmet!