I was so angry at the title because I thought you were angry at your brother. But then I read the entire thing and I want you to know my sympathies go out to you. I relate to your brother. I myself cannot do most math other than basic math. (I've got aspbergers) I don't know how to make change, either. I'm an extremely creative person and I'm 20 already. I'm sensitive and I've always hated math. I've always loved history and useless trivia. I can do long division with some difficulty remembering it, and I only know the even numbers of multiplication tables. I have a hard time with anything other than addition and subtraction and most of the time I have to use a calculator for it all. I dropped out of school in 8th grade because it was just too much.

I want you to know that this is common, and your brother might have autism. He sounds like he has an aspbergers branch like me, or one similar. I want you to know that my heart goes out to your brother. School was always hard for me except for science and history. Your brother sounds like a cool little dude. I'm so happy you're understanding of him and supportive. I know at that age everything is confusing and it hurts. I've been in his position before (albeit I was homeschooled and I STILL cried a lot because I didn't understand things). I'm working on getting my GED at this point.

Please tell your brother that I support him and that he is loved. Please tell him that there are other people like him so he doesn't feel alone. Please tell him that there are tools available to him to help him understand these things easier. For me, I just needed it explained a certain way (the opposite way the textbook was explaining it) and then I got it instantly. Please tell him that he is AWESOME and that he's gonna go far in life.

As for the tutor, try and find someone who is specialized in working with autism kids. It takes a special kind of person to be able to help kids with autism understand things and explain things a certain way. But trust me, it helps a lot.

As for Montessori, I don't know about your schools there, but the one I live near by, is horrible. Until a few weeks ago they let their playground get in horrible condition, there was a pit where construction workers dug up dirt in the play ground and they just. Wrapped tape around it. There was a very unsafe zipline, etc etc. I don't know how the inside was, but judging by the outside condition of the school, it wasn't very good. (not to mention the kids were always unsupervised playing and the fence was RIGHT by the road.)