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I'll go on record as agreeing that math is being poorly taught in public schools and that a student is lucky to have a year with a good teacher and a good math textbook.

I've had the unfortunate experience of having to tutor my daughter in math every year since the 2nd grade to supplement the mostly useless nonsense that passes for math instruction in the public school.

It's the same this year as she's learning pre-algebra in 8th grade and the teacher seems to be fairly intelligent but the book they're using is a hopelessly confusing pile of crap. The authors insist on teaching several types of conceptually based problem solving methods simultaneously and letting the students explore for themselves which method they like best. THIS IS STUPIDITY if you're trying to teach how to solve math problems. I've made it through calculus and I can't make any sense of some of my daughter's homework and I've had to write several notes to her teacher saying that I didn't know how to help with the homework assignment as instructed but that I taught her how to solve the problems correctly by the method I was familiar with.

Her science books have not been much better and I don't see how even a good teacher can be expected to get good results using crap books.