Update:
DS's math teacher is on leave for a couple of months. The sub discovered that she'd skipped three chapters in the textbook --- 25% of the course. So the new teacher decided that everyone was going back to chapter 5, which was the right triangles chapter that I mentioned in my first message. That's good. They're only going to finish 3/4 of the course this year, though, so I wonder what's going to happen.
The saddest thing of all is that DS told me that someone in his class (a bright kid, apparently) said that his parents send him to this school because "the math program is so good."
Did I mention that they have a math competition club after school for the higher achievers? During the first semester, the kids spent four weeks painting the parking lot.
I'll note again that DS is allowed to study math independently, and we're grateful for that. But that doesn't mean I can't be somewhat appalled that the geometry teacher has been allowed to get away with this and that a school can cheat kids out of math instruction by using them as free labor.
