Are we teaching our school children to test or learn?

This is a question I have had for a few years now, the thought popped in my head while I was sitting in a college class a couple years after I had graduated and a younger student who had just graduated couldn't answer a question that was a thought based question instead of a book based question. After I had my daughter I started really looking at education in my area and have come to the conclusion that yes we are teaching them to test. Most children in the schools now can tell you and answer based on what a teacher has told them is going to be on a test but they could not tell you what they thought about any given subject. I remember in school we were encouraged to think, to come up with our own conclusions. I graduated a year before the high school graduation test started, I have seen that the school systems are now teaching what it on that test as well as the one that is in elementary school no more no less. What has happened??? Why are we standing by and letting this happen??? What as parents and friends of parents are we going to do about it???
The floor is open, lets hear some opinions!!