Thats actually false. European kids could definently point out all major wordwide cities and countries and probably even the major landmarks of cities like NY or LA
When I think about how much geography I was taught in school... its like I have a world map inprinted in my grey matter.
That is actually not false, and I know it from experience of being around and, in fact, being A EUROPEAN. I don't know when you went to school, but it must have been over a hundred years ago, because geography is not centered around knowing countries and places at all. It's all about infrastructure and geology. Which, might I add, is much more useful information. On the off chance we need to have information on a country, we get an Atlas supplied.
In short, Europeans don't know major worldwide cities and countries, at least not in any form other than random trivia, simply because Europeans do not believe this to be of any value. And it isn't. I haven't seen a single geography schoolbook in my life that actually dealt with these things.