ACE education

[Micah]

I was home schooled with the ACE program until grade three, then my Mum wrote her own curriculum. Mum and I both blame the ACE program for my lack of maths skills. She only used it because ninety percent of parents in our church home schooled and the ACE program was what everyone used. I did learn to read very well with it though.

It was mind numbingly boring. The only interesting thing about it was the stupid little cartoons in the work books.

An ACE school opened up in my town a couple of years ago. To start with they had a huge influx of registrations (the public school here has....issues). Then they all dropped off and the school closed after about two years.

[FJismyheadship]

When I was in fourth grade we did the ace stuff. There was a story about how mount everest was the tallest mountain and nobody had ever climbed it. I told my dad I would be the first person ever to climb it. My dad was confused and told me someone already climbed it. hose books didn't last much longer.

[chaotic life]

I had one year when I needed my older kids to be self-paced and nearly went with ACE materials but could not reconcile that it was academically shoddy. I went with Lifepacs from Alpha Omega AND Switched on Schoolhouse, thinking it would be a better choice. It was a disaster. The entire program was shoddy, but the worst was the ELA and the complete lack of grammar instruction. We did it for six months and I realized I was going to have to bite the bullet and go back to mom-directed curriculum. I had to help the kids recoup what that type of stuff cost them academically because they simply did not learn in that time frame.

Only time I ever did a boxed curriculum and one of the many things I swore off is a boxed religious based curriculum, as well as anything self-paced versus parent supervision.

[alchemy]

I went to an ACE school in the 70s in Alabama. It was mind-numbing. My classmates and I learned sign language to communicate when the supervisors weren't looking. A friend (also a student there) and I were accused of practicing witchcraft because we were interested in Kirlian photography ( auras) and EVPs (we set a tape recorder to record in her house when nobody else was home and left for an hour or so, with very interesting results)We were not members of the church that ran the school and wore pants at home, which caused no end of problems. I can honestly say that my education was in no way furthered by the experience, and it took me a while to catch up academically (summer school) once I returned to public school. The emphasis seemed more on control and indoctrination than academics. Girls were not allowed to take algebra, geometry, physics or typing until they had passed a semester of Home Ec. The only thing I really learned there was rebellion and a distaste for religion.

So much of your experience could be mine, especially the bolded. In the early 80's I was stuck in ACE for two years at an ACE school, then two years of home-schooling. I felt stunted compared to my peers when I finally was sent to public school and my math skills were so sub-par I don't feel I ever caught up. The ACE school was so controlling we were forbidden to even wear snow pants in the frigid 40-below northern winters, and if anyone found out you did something the school didn't approve of (like watch the wrong kind of movie, or listen to the wrong kind of music because we can't be a bad witness to the world, ya know?) outside of school time you'd be punished. We would get demerits for every minor infraction under the sun (your uniform bow isn't tied correctly! Demerit! You chair wasn't pushed in when you went to score your PACE! Demerit! You didn't take down your flag after the teacher helped you! Demerit!) that I was perpetually in detention and eventually accrued enough detention time to warrant a paddling.

It was so long ago and much of the content wasn't durable so I can't recall much of what I was learning during that time except this one PACE that covered scientific method and how it can't be applied to things like prayer but that's okay. Check out this "Criticized content in A.C.E curriculum" section on wikipedia has some interesting tidbits on the crap content you'll sometimes find in a PACE:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Christian_Education#Criticized_content_in_A.C.E_curriculum

A childhood friend is now homeschooling using ACE. I tried to talk her out of it, but "it has God, y'all" trumps quality secular education any day.

[littleblueheathen]

Wow, demerits. Almost forgot about them. I racked 'em up left and right. Only got one paddling, though, but believe me it was enough. And the reason for it was....wait for it..... singing Steppenwolf's "Snowblind Friend" outside on the playground. I stopped counting after 30 licks. My mother came to the school next day and told them it better never happen again and that future disciplinary problems would be handled by her , at home. But alas, when she showed up she was wearing *gasp* pants (the polyester 70's kind) and they told her that she was fostering a spirit of rebellion at home by wearing that which pertaineth to a man. This was followed by her asking the principal if he would wear what she had on. He said no, those are women's pants. When she finished laughing she told me to go clean out my desk. She did make me play Snowblind Friend for her to see what all the fuss was about. She just shook her head and said those people are nuts.

[littleblueheathen]

As far as academics go, yeah, I feel like I was shortchanged and never really caught up. College was a bust for me and I never finished. Even after going to public high school (research paper, wtf is that? etc.) many teachers were not sympathetic to or understanding of my problem and I was left to flounder.

[yewnique]

Its funny that this has come up this week, I have been calling schools and gathering info packs because I plan to start homeschooling my daughter next year.

My husband used a distance ed school in our state and they used ACE, we had been planning to do the same until I spoke to a different distance ed school that offers a cirriculum they have written themselves. I asked why they had left ACE...it turns out that as Australia rolls out the national cirriculum and learning outcomes ACE will NOT meet standards, and if you use it you will have to suppliment to meet the learning outcomes so this school had written a cirriculum that will meet and exceed the learing outcomes. The lady I spoke to mentioned that although she had used ACE for her own children she is encouraging people to move away from it now and find different choices. Australian unis don't accept it any longer and ACE graduates need to do a "bridging course" to gain uni entry.

*I know there are some shocking SOTDRT spellings in here!! I am rushing to go and eat dinner!!*

We're in Melbourne. When I started homeschooling more than ten years ago, the very first curriculum I used was ACE. A friend at church used it with her kids and she said she could lend me her Instructor's Guides and help me order the workbooks. So that's what we used for the first year.

It was 'School at Home' and very Americentric. The students had to learn the Pledge of Allegiance and US patriotic songs and such. Also, I found it not very academically-challenging at all. So after that first year, we ditched it and went with something else.

I'm glad to see that ditching ACE was a good move.

[yewnique]

Personally, I'm gonna go with airplane. It just feels right.

As a teacher, if you're going to do multiple choice, have at least one good distractor-answer that's actually plausible. Good grief people.

After seeing the sample questions, I think my 7yo would be ready for 9th Grade and my 11yo should be able to do their 12th Grade work.

Yes. That looks about right.

[bettertomarry]

Personally, I'm gonna go with airplane. It just feels right.

As a teacher, if you're going to do multiple choice, have at least one good distractor-answer that's actually plausible. Good grief people.

I nearly ruined my computer by spilling wine because I was laughing so hard. Priceless.

[DifferentGurl]

I nearly ruined my computer by spilling wine because I was laughing so hard. Priceless.

I'm sure you wouldn't need to read the books In order to answer most of the questions correctly. :lol: