A.C.E

[DarkAnts]

Dose anyone know anything about A.C.E? They have been having a regional conference here this week. I seen them around. I know they are evangelical but I dont know much beyond that. The teens are required to be in dress attire unless they are doing sports. Then, the girls have to wear skirts for some reason.

Edit 1: I found their website but there is not a lot of info on it.

Edit 2: I work at the place the conference is at so I cant snark on them. Besides, the participants are teens. I wont snark on kids or teens because they have limited choice and life experience.

[Guest Anonymous]

Any idea what ACE stands for?

All I can think of is Accelerated Christian Education which is an evangelical organisation providing educational resources to private schools/home educators. aceministries.com/

IIRC, it is the one where children sit in little cubicles and work on individually set packages of work, raising a flag if they need help from a teacher.

ETA: Is this the thing that is going to take place in your building? aceministries.com/studentprograms/rsc/?content=rsc/main

[DarkAnts]

Yes, I think its Accelerated Christian Education. Its one of their regional conferences.

I am more interested after hearing a few girls complain about having to wear skirts all the time at the conference.

[Guest Anonymous]

Yes, I think its Accelerated Christian Education. Its one of their regional conferences.

I am more interested after hearing a few girls complain about having to wear skirts all the time at the conference.

I think it just means they are expected to be in school uniform while at the event. The girls would be expected to wear skirts every day in school, I imagine. My guess is that since it is a broad-based evangelical organisation, there would probably be some variation in how individual schools/families impose the rules on uniform, so some at the event may be feeling it an imposition to wear the required outfits. It is what it is. As an outsider I'd be far more bothered by what they teach and how they teach it, than the fact that they have uniforms to wear to regional events. But then, I come from the UK where school uniform is the norm (although girls have been able to wear trousers for at least a decade or so, now).

[DarkAnts]

I think it just means they are expected to be in school uniform while at the event. The girls would be expected to wear skirts every day in school, I imagine. My guess is that since it is a broad-based evangelical organisation, there would probably be some variation in how individual schools/families impose the rules on uniform, so some at the event may be feeling it an imposition to wear the required outfits. It is what it is. As an outsider I'd be far more bothered by what they teach and how they teach it, than the fact that they have uniforms to wear to regional events. But then, I come from the UK where school uniform is the norm (although girls have been able to wear trousers for at least a decade or so, now).

The teens dont appear to be in uniforms. I wore a uniform to high school so I am not unfamiliar with them. They are wearing what I consider to be their sunday best. The boys are in suits and the girls are wearing nice skirts and tops. There is no set style that I have seen that would indicate a uniform. Anyway....

I do agree that its more important to find out what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. Thats why I am asking for more info about them.

[skrmom]

The A.C.E. Curriculum consists of several workbooks for each subject (math, English, Science,etc) There are a few pages of text, then a series of questions regarding the text. The student reads the text, then answers the questions. When the book is completed, the student takes an exam over what he/she read. If they pass the test with an 80% or better, they progress to the next workbook. If not, they erase all they have done in the workbook and do it over until they get an 80 or above on the test.

There is an adult supervisor in the room that is not a licensed teacher-she is there to maintain discipline, hand out pencils, listen to Bible passages the students memorize.

For most of the day, the students sit in 'private' cubicles with no interaction with other students. Talking to another student or even turning around is considered 'undisciplined' and is punished (staying after school). There are no class discussions, projects or lab work for science classes like Chemistry or Physics. The students merely read about chemical reactions in the workbook. Most of the day is spent in complete silence.

There is a 30 minute lunch break where students may talk.

The day begins with a chapel service. One hymn is selected each month and that hymn is sung every day for the entire month.

The students are required to memorize Bible passages perfectly. Saying 'to' instead of 'unto' is considered wrong.

[Culottes]

The A.C.E. Curriculum consists of several workbooks for each subject (math, English, Science,etc) There are a few pages of text, then a series of questions regarding the text. The student reads the text, then answers the questions. When the book is completed, the student takes an exam over what he/she read. If they pass the test with an 80% or better, they progress to the next workbook. If not, they erase all they have done in the workbook and do it over until they get an 80 or above on the test.

There is an adult supervisor in the room that is not a licensed teacher-she is there to maintain discipline, hand out pencils, listen to Bible passages the students memorize.

For most of the day, the students sit in 'private' cubicles with no interaction with other students. Talking to another student or even turning around is considered 'undisciplined' and is punished (staying after school). There are no class discussions, projects or lab work for science classes like Chemistry or Physics. The students merely read about chemical reactions in the workbook. Most of the day is spent in complete silence.

There is a 30 minute lunch break where students may talk.

The day begins with a chapel service. One hymn is selected each month and that hymn is sung every day for the entire month.

The students are required to memorize Bible passages perfectly. Saying 'to' instead of 'unto' is considered wrong.

This is what I understand A.C.E to be as well. A fundie-friend of mine had this curriculum when she went to grade and high school. I used to help her with her homework sometimes and the whole curriculum had a strong creationist/Biblical take on every subject. It is really just a small step up from mediocre home schooling. The comment about non-licensed "teachers" was also correct. At the time my friend went to school, there was only one licensed teacher in the whole K-12 school. Ironically, my friend now sends her children to public school.

[Guest Anonymous]

The teens dont appear to be in uniforms. I wore a uniform to high school so I am not unfamiliar with them. They are wearing what I consider to be their sunday best. The boys are in suits and the girls are wearing nice skirts and tops. There is no set style that I have seen that would indicate a uniform. Anyway....

I do agree that its more important to find out what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. Thats why I am asking for more info about them.

Google brings up this: http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress. ... en-by-ace/

[GodsKnickers]

I'm a former pastor's kid (dad was a Pentecostal minister) and ACE was the program my parents were trying to get us into at one of the first xian schools in the area, when I was in junior high. Fortunately, we ended up moving and that solved that. I had to go do some testing of some kind or the other and recall absolutely hating it. Had things worked out, I'd have also been stuck wearing a uniform - always skirts. No pants. Ever.

So happy to be an un-fundie now. :D

[DarkAnts]

Google brings up this: http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress. ... en-by-ace/

Thank you, it explains a lot.

[DarkAnts]

I'm a former pastor's kid (dad was a Pentecostal minister) and ACE was the program my parents were trying to get us into at one of the first xian schools in the area, when I was in junior high. Fortunately, we ended up moving and that solved that. I had to go do some testing of some kind or the other and recall absolutely hating it. Had things worked out, I'd have also been stuck wearing a uniform - always skirts. No pants. Ever.

So happy to be an un-fundie now. :D

Yes, thats the impression I got from the kids. I am happy that my lutheran school never did ACE.

I did go to a public school that still did, paddling. It was in Florida and there were lots steps before you got spanked. You basically knew it was coming and could only be done after all of the other steps had failed. I was never paddled, but I was a good kid overall.

[metalmama1]

i used their diagnostic tests in my lil homeschool on the prairie... (i run an actual school at home, that i started when i was still a heathen, for non religious reasons & i had no idea people that were religious even did this till i had been doing it a few years.... & i became 'religious' way after this.... i was worried about my gentle lil boys going to rough, 'gangland slaying in the hallway' schools with metal detectors, drug dogs & gangs & how 87 times a week they'd get their asses kicked cuz they are gentle & nice & i like boys that are like that.... & those kinda boys are rare in the neighborhoods they grew up in....

read about home schooling, eh. i can do that. i went to college till they ran out of calculus & i dropped out... cool! one of my gentle lil boys is now a fuck you up debt collector, one is a marine, so either that's a knee jerk reaction to mommy mommying them or they were inherently bad ass all along & i failed to recognize it, even tho my marine doesn't actively hate army & airforce guys & works out with them & my debt collector shows pity to single moms & people hiding from medical bills. love them! <3!!!!

their diagnostic tests are fine for grades 1-8, to make sure the yung'uns were a year smarter than last year, i didn;t know they had conferences or a dress codes lol.... i am dum.

i thought it was just a whole buncha comic book like 'text books' i never bought cuz seemed like a tremendous waste of resources- if you have 5 kids (i didn't. i have 6 HA! lol ;)) you needed like... i dunno... a shitton of comic books for grade oldest kid science, a shitton of comic books for grade oldest history, math etc- not the right amount of subjects [sARCASM FONT\] cuz god gave me a vision & math, science, english didn't seem like enough classes to have a real 'equivalent to a public school education' [\SARCASM FONT] that my state requires, cuz it was missing a TON of classes to qualify, as far as i was concerned....

&... lather, rinse, repeat for kids 4-1, wtf, really??!!?!?! each kid needs 60 comic books to complete ayear of 3 or 4 classes?!!?!? huh.... how 'bout fuck that, put the diagnostic test in a page protector & give them a marker board marker & use 1 test book for 6 kids & use text books the rest of the year?' prolly that!

but eh... it's not a bad diagnostic test for the stuff that can actually be tested, whether it's '1 book per kid' (not how we roll) or 1 book for all 6 kids for all the years i'll use them till i donate the binder to goodwill?? (YUP!)

there are a BUNCHA classes besides the ACE that i stuff down my kids throat... computers & foreign language & critical thinking & my stars, i think ACE likes 3 or 4 as the magic number, i am kinda sure my kids have 6 or 8, like a real school..... some days i thinkj i might have stressed critical thinking TOO much to the kidiots.... prolly that....

[happy atheist]

i used their diagnostic tests in my lil homeschool on the prairie... (i run an actual school at home, that i started when i was still a heathen, for non religious reasons & i had no idea people that were religious even did this till i had been doing it a few years.... & i became 'religious' way after this.... i was worried about my gentle lil boys going to rough, 'gangland slaying in the hallway' schools with metal detectors, drug dogs & gangs & how 87 times a week they'd get their asses kicked cuz they are gentle & nice & i like boys that are like that.... & those kinda boys are rare in the neighborhoods they grew up in....

read about home schooling, eh. i can do that. i went to college till they ran out of calculus & i dropped out... cool! one of my gentle lil boys is now a fuck you up debt collector, one is a marine, so either that's a knee jerk reaction to mommy mommying them or they were inherently bad ass all along & i failed to recognize it, even tho my marine doesn't actively hate army & airforce guys & works out with them & my debt collector shows pity to single moms & people hiding from medical bills. love them!

their diagnostic tests are fine for grades 1-8, to make sure the yung'uns were a year smarter than last year, i didn;t know they had conferences or a dress codes lol.... i am dum.

i thought it was just a whole buncha comic book like 'text books' i never bought cuz seemed like a tremendous waste of resources- if you have 5 kids (i didn't. i have 6 HA! lol ;)) you needed like... i dunno... a shitton of comic books for grade oldest kid science, a shitton of comic books for grade oldest history, math etc- not the right amount of subjects [sARCASM FONT\] cuz god gave me a vision & math, science, english didn't seem like enough classes to have a real 'equivalent to a public school education' [\SARCASM FONT] that my state requires, cuz it was missing a TON of classes to qualify, as far as i was concerned....

&... lather, rinse, repeat for kids 4-1, wtf, really??!!?!?! each kid needs 60 comic books to complete ayear of 3 or 4 classes?!!?!? huh.... how 'bout fuck that, put the diagnostic test in a page protector & give them a marker board marker & use 1 test book for 6 kids & use text books the rest of the year?' prolly that!

but eh... it's not a bad diagnostic test for the stuff that can actually be tested, whether it's '1 book per kid' (not how we roll) or 1 book for all 6 kids for all the years i'll use them till i donate the binder to goodwill?? (YUP!)

there are a BUNCHA classes besides the ACE that i stuff down my kids throat... computers & foreign language & critical thinking & my stars, i think ACE likes 3 or 4 as the magic number, i am kinda sure my kids have 6 or 8, like a real school..... some days i thinkj i might have stressed critical thinking TOO much to the kidiots.... prolly that....

Holy shit - if you're teaching children, you should understand the importance of capitalization! Your posts are unreadable.

[dawbs]

Ahh, there's a name for the cubicle schools; I did not know that.

I just know there was a baptist one, one town over. When my baby sister was being especially snarky one year (6th grade for her), my parents were considering sending her.

I may have had the 16 year-old, but not-very-grown-up reaction of threatening to run away in solidarity, with her, if they did.

I give myself credit for saving her butt from hell :-P

[nolongerIFBx]

My parents were never fans of ACE though it was used at many of the Christian schools run by the churches that we attended. I remember one mother telling me that she pulled her kids out because the ACE curriculum wasn't working- "Susie would have finished highschool at 16 and Bobby would still be there." However, I also know of a doctor who grew up doing ACE.

[longskirtlotsakids]

Metalmama1 strikes me as a VF intern trying to pose as a badass. Its like a dweeb tryin' to be all gangsta n shyt, yo.

[longskirtlotsakids]

Yes, just read the rest of her sixteen missives and am now convinced this is a fake character and a badly personified one at that. First, she ran a "lil homeschool on the prairie" without having "any idea that religious people did that." Her barely coherent rambling aside, it would be impossible to put together a curriculum that included ACE without seeing religious influences. Second, how do you go from "who is the duggars i have never seen them" to using the term " ex-Gothard" in a few days? She has alsonever seen the dugars yet references reality television, proclaims to run a school yet is unintelligible, attempts to sound badass by using poorly spelled conjunctions "prolly" and " buncha" but yet doesn't know how to cuss worth fuck.

Sorry metalmama1 whoever you are- your repeated bleats of "who are you people" and " xtian folx r nuts" are annoying and telltale. Don't despair though. Mayhaps you can try again as paganlezziemum69 next time.

[formergothardite]

"I went to college till they ran out of calculus". Perhaps then she should have taken up English 101.

[longskirtlotsakids]

No shit, hey? Incidentally, college runs out of calc pretty early in a mathematics track. You soon move on to Differential Equations and Theoretical Functional Analysis.

[belly_button]

I never knew ACE was a Christian based group until I read it here at freejinger. I just thought it was some cheap, slightly strange homeschool system. My best friend in high school left public school in 9th grade I think and was using it. I seem to remember her having to test for her GED, which seemed odd to me. My mother homeschooled my younger brothers and they went through an accredited homeschool so their diploma was considered valid. (this is part of the reason I thought it was cheap--it was less than half of what my parents were paying AND she had to get a GED)

Back to the ACE thing though, it makes me wonder if her parents were fundy-lite and I never realized it. We broke up in college and she told me basically that she didn't want anything to do with any of us (the group of friends that had hung out together for years) because we were evil heathens, dragging her down the wrong path.

This makes me think. I grew up pretty strict Catholic and now I wonder if they were trying to get her to "save" me. Then, when it was clear not only was I not getting saved, I was moving away from catholicism too, she just gave up.

[Smokey-pony]

I did some of the ACE booklets in my early home school years. However it was never the main curriculum fortunately, more just something extra to give me more practice in math and spelling. I do remember pointing out to my mom how messed up it was that the black kid was named "Racer" and the heavy kid "Pudge" in the little cartoons. I believe it was around that point that I wasn't given them anymore.

[Crazytripletmommy]

A.C.E. seems like a very odd curriculum. I am glad I was never given it- I would have failed horribly at sitting quietly at a cubicle and working through a workbook. I am fairly sure that would have been a recipe for falling asleep. :)

[LittleMama]

But you find out in Etimology 1085 that "Pudge's" name is really Matthew and that he doesn't want to be called that anymore because he never liked it and is growing up and loosing weight. Everyone is apologetic.

Lol... My husband did ACE at a little school, and he has all these little stories about the curriculum. He does NOT recommend it. I can't imagine, I went to public school.

[technopaganus]

There was a girl in my year at high school that dropped out during our junior year in order to "homeschool herself" through a program like this one. The last I heard about her, she had joined some cult in rural Southern IA, and lived on some compound. We'd see her at the local Pamida once in awhile, wearing fundy-goes-boho flowing skirts and long-sleeved henleys.

[Katydid]

The A.C.E. Curriculum consists of several workbooks for each subject (math, English, Science,etc) There are a few pages of text, then a series of questions regarding the text. The student reads the text, then answers the questions. When the book is completed, the student takes an exam over what he/she read. If they pass the test with an 80% or better, they progress to the next workbook. If not, they erase all they have done in the workbook and do it over until they get an 80 or above on the test.

There is an adult supervisor in the room that is not a licensed teacher-she is there to maintain discipline, hand out pencils, listen to Bible passages the students memorize.

For most of the day, the students sit in 'private' cubicles with no interaction with other students. Talking to another student or even turning around is considered 'undisciplined' and is punished (staying after school). There are no class discussions, projects or lab work for science classes like Chemistry or Physics. The students merely read about chemical reactions in the workbook. Most of the day is spent in complete silence.

There is a 30 minute lunch break where students may talk.

The day begins with a chapel service. One hymn is selected each month and that hymn is sung every day for the entire month.

The students are required to memorize Bible passages perfectly. Saying 'to' instead of 'unto' is considered wrong.

That atmosphere sounds like it's not conducive to learning at all. I do think there is some value to memorisation (to this day I can still recite a number of poems, and I am glad for the ability to do so. I also know my times-tables by heart, which apparently a number of my college classmates do not. I'm only about 10 years their elder, too!), but I don't think it's the be-all and end-all.