Your example sucks btw.
Every syllabus is different, and maybe one school's syllabus is in order from 1-20 and you do exactly 1-20. However, our schools is set up for freedom to move about. I give end-of-course tests daily, and the FAA at the toughest FSDO in the nation HAS in fact approved that, with a stamp that is meant for if we jump more than 3 lessons ahead. You can skip around as much or as little as you want in the stage, and thats where your face will turn red and I could care less. However, standardization is strong, and I trust every one of my CFI's that I work with. Now, you shouldn't skip around between stages too much, unless it's necessary. The only time that is acceptable DAILY is in the IRA/COMM 141 combined course. Notice I said shouldn't not couldn't. Before our syllabus matched the learning guide the 2nd stage started with soloing, but after that it was all review flights and ground checks for an end-of-course test, which meant that if the weather sucked, and solo was not an option, what do you do? According to you its a no, god forbid you touch stage 2, so cancel the student right? Tell your owner that one, and see how fast your is on the street jobless. You move on to the next lesson, next stage or not. I can include some FOI into here too if you like me too. If your student is hitting a plateau on maneuvers, what are you going to do, grind his until he gets over it by himself with the potential to have him leave? I sure hope not. You move into something completely unrelated. I usually go for the XC. Why? Because it's a fun flight, and breaks up the monotony of doing the same crap in the same practice area over and over again.
(edit for: http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/profanity-filters-and-you.123330/)