One in four Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun

People who don't know this, typically also don't have a mental picture of the solar system, so inconsistencies won't make an impression.

A few years ago, some freshly minted Harvard graduates were asked what causes the seasons. The majority believed that the seasons are caused by the earth being closer to the sun in July. This idea would come as a shock to people living in Australia, where summertime peaks in January.

It's just that many people don't think about these things, not that they necessarily have wildly distorted physical ideas.

Not all homeschooling contributes to ignorance. It depends on the parents' reason for the choice to homeschool and their educational level.

Creationism should certainly be excluded from science classrooms, for a simple reason -- it's not science.