California has been working on separating children from parental help for years. I remember trying to help my daughter with algebra and couldn’t do it because the text book did not include any examples. First of all 40% was a passing grade, so you know that the teacher wasn’t doing even an acceptable job of teaching in the classroom.
I had to go out and buy a different text book to use to teach the algebra because if she didn’t get it in the classroom, she wasn’t going to be able to get it at home. I figured out too late that most of the top students had algebra and language tutors that come to their home to re-teach what the school did not.
I bought a book for my nephew too, on ebay, so he’d have something to refer to when he was stuck.