There is also a competing curriculum, called "Life Packs", which is very similar. I was homeschooled, and I didn't learn much with them either. I especialy fell behind with Math, because I am dyscalculic, and didn't get the help I needed for my special needs. So my Math skills are very poor. Not that public school would have been any better. P.S. Did anyone know that the very first modern homeschools were set up by muslims in Texas? I wonder what they taught there children. I also agree that many homeschool curriculums indoctrinate with a fundamentalistic theology, and or Right-wing ideology.

I see that many of you had some really bad experiences with ACE/School of Tomorrow. However, just because you had a bad experience at your "school" does not make all the curriculum bad. I have 2 sons that have used ACE and love it. One is now a sophomore in college. I called him after reading all your horrible comments and experiences. He told me that it was a "nearly perfect curriculum". It allowed him to work at his own pace and learn what they offered or reach past the basics and learn so much more. He graduated from high school with honors and scored exceptionally well on the ACT. He loves learning. He did not attend one of the schools your talked about. He was homeschooled and maybe that made for a better all around experience. The other one is a freshman in high school and has used ACE for most of his education. One year he even attended an ACE private school. However, it did not resemble the schools in your descriptions at all. Yes, they had rules and order in the classroom (which is what most public schools lack today). We left the ACE curriculum once, but came back at his request. It's concise, often reviews past information taught, and checks progress often. Don't be so quick to "throw the baby out with the bath water" You must have attended unsatisfactory schools, but the curriculum is well written, offers a complete education and absolutely does not fall into the lines of a cult.

I think that here again is another example of how it's all about balance. :) There ARE some people who seriously learn the best by rote memorization, etc... my mom being one of those people. I am comletely not! Give me hands on any day of the week or I'm going to zone out on you. So I think there are instances where ACE could work well... but for the great majority of learners (since hands on/discovery learners are the statistical majority) it is not.

Of course I'm talking about the way the curriculum is administrated in a good environment. There's never a place for child abuse... and I doubt that anyone in an environment like that will learn as much as those not being abused regardless of the curriculum.

I do, however, remember my shock and horror when my brother (who had just been certified as an ACE teacher) was trying to explain to me how the classroom was ran. I was only 13 at the time... but I remember saying, "You mean people actually learn... LIKE THAT?????" heh

I attended a Christian School under the A.C.E. System for nine years of my life. Working at my own pace really worked for me. That is if you consider taking home homework every night and spending nights working on homework until 10 PM a good thing for a growing boy. It certainly wasn't cause I was the fat kid. And I needed exercise. Under the A.C.E. system, I took home copious amounts of homework. I'm sure I had ADD. (And I like chocolate pudding!) But the A.C.E. answer to that was to make the student stay in his seat until the work is finished, at all cost. The A.C.E. idea of working at your own pace is a recipe for an academic disaster.

On one morning I brought in my homework and put it, along with my green homework slip on top of my office. I had taken home three PACEs home for homework the previous night. The principal came to me and snatched the slip off the top of my office and growled, "Follow me to my office!" I don't remember the rest of what happened. But I remember feeling like the worst person on earth the rest of the day.

Other outbursts against other students kept me in constant fear of him. He had no business doing the job he was doing.

The A.C.E. system, at every level, seemed to milk the life out of me. One year I got about eight "paddlings" within a time period of about six weeks. I think that was in fall 1983. Half the time these were the charges: I was memorizing answers out of the score key without doing the work. My defense: how could I not remember the answers when I had just checked it two minutes ago? I did the work. The verdict: guilty. That was the charge on at least half of the paddlings. Now here's the funny thing: That same teacher who leveled those charges on me was arrested in summer 1986 on "lewd and lacivious behavior." It is good to know my pain could have been the source of his jollies. And it is great to know the "church-schools" under the A.C.E. system know how to find the right people.

I could go on about everything that is wrong with that system. And maybe I will in future postings. Looking back at the whole ordeal, I ask God, "Why did this happen?" and "Why did this happen to me?" And every time I ask, I get absolutely no response.

Can anybody out there tell me why?

Yes, unfortunately, still alive and well-
Beyond that, it seems many 'cult-ish' types are drawn to this program due to cost-saving, non-degree holding 'teachers'.
There is a cult in Dade City, Florida that is still alive and well and using this program. WARN EVERYONE YOU KNOW-
STAY AWAY FROM THE 'CHURCH SCHOOL' IN DADE CITY!!!!

Is that school an ACE school? If so, are you (or were you ever) a student? If so, did you have a chance to save any PACEs, your Student Handbook, or any other parts of the curriculum?

Quote
Godisgoodtoall
Yes, unfortunately, still alive and well-
Beyond that, it seems many 'cult-ish' types are drawn to this program due to cost-saving, non-degree holding 'teachers'.
There is a cult in Dade City, Florida that is still alive and well and using this program. WARN EVERYONE YOU KNOW-
STAY AWAY FROM THE 'CHURCH SCHOOL' IN DADE CITY!!!!

hi-godisgoodtoall permitted me to borrow their space-

I was enrolled in the ACE program for 12 years, and I am now in college. I know the many ins-and-outs of the

ACE system, and can vouch that this "curriculum" is full of thousands of errors, and promotes many horrendous

ideas and beliefs, such as racism, segregation, anti-Semitism, hard-core creationism, anti-Catholic beliefs, al of which

totally contradict Christ's teachings and Christianity itself- and that is just the tip of the iceberg! I will give an example

in the PACEsof how each charge is justified. To begin with, ACE does promote racism and segregation (yes, it does,

even though the PACEs do not actually contain racist comments- it is much more veiled)- as an example, there are

little cartoons and so-called "Wisdom" packets in each English packet. These cartoons do contain Hispanic, Caucasian

, and African-American characters intermingling- but most importantly, all these characters DO NOT ATTEND the

same school. So, yes, there is a school for the "white" kids, and a school for the "black" kids. It is only slightly hinted

at, but it is there. This is how ACE accomplishes its twisted mission, through sly suggestions and inferences, but still,

the racism is still there. As to anti- Semitism, there are many such remarks interspersed in the religious portions

of the PACES, one such is the suggestion that the Holocaust was a direct result of the Jews who called out at Christ's

trial that this action be held to their and their descendant's lives or to their "heads." How sick is that? While

creatinism is the scientific counterpart of our religious beliefs, and an added foundation to our faith, ACE does not

present any up-dated info, nor does it teach any science-biology, chemistry, or physics correctly. Evolution is only

discussed to label it as bunk, without providing any real argument for creationism. ACE is also very much anti-

Catholic, calling Protestant denominations "Christians," and excluding Catholics. The history portion of the PACEs is

written to portray all Catholics as blood-thirsty, Hail-Mary fanatics, and while there have been many conflicts between

Catholics and Protestants because of beliefs, there has been equal guilt on the Protestant side as well. Actually, ACE

also makes fun of Presbyterians, Methodists, and other main-line Protestants, reserving fundamentalists as the "true"

believers. All these examples showcase how inept ACE is, and that it should really be barred from being taught.

Thanks for reading this--post it to as amny friends that you know!

Quote
lovinlife
I see that many of you had some really bad experiences with ACE/School of Tomorrow. However, just because you had a bad experience at your "school" does not make all the curriculum bad. I have 2 sons that have used ACE and love it. One is now a sophomore in college. I called him after reading all your horrible comments and experiences. He told me that it was a "nearly perfect curriculum". It allowed him to work at his own pace and learn what they offered or reach past the basics and learn so much more. He graduated from high school with honors and scored exceptionally well on the ACT. He loves learning. He did not attend one of the schools your talked about. He was homeschooled and maybe that made for a better all around experience. The other one is a freshman in high school and has used ACE for most of his education. One year he even attended an ACE private school. However, it did not resemble the schools in your descriptions at all. Yes, they had rules and order in the classroom (which is what most public schools lack today). We left the ACE curriculum once, but came back at his request. It's concise, often reviews past information taught, and checks progress often. Don't be so quick to "throw the baby out with the bath water" You must have attended unsatisfactory schools, but the curriculum is well written, offers a complete education and absolutely does not fall into the lines of a cult.

The problem with the ACE system is the fact that there are no teachers to teach the students.

Now in comparison to conventional schools, look at the ACE system. A student learns by reading the text. In other words, there are no lectures of material, with the exception of daily morning chapel, physical education, and in ABCs of ACE (k-5 level.) If a student does not not complete the assigned pages of his work, he is required to take the balance home as homework. There were occasional science projects written into the Science PACEs, but since each student works at his own speed, the possibility of group projects (that also build social interaction skills) does not exist. With the exception of the PACE test, Student grades his own work. With that said, student is expected to monitor his own progress while pursuing his goals. Students have fewer methods of learning (no group study is possible) and are bombarded with opportunities to cheat the system by memorizing answers from Key, and scoring inaccurately. Monitors took on the roll of compliance enforcement in two ways. First of all, the monitor scores the entire PACE before the student is signed off to take the Self Test. Violations are punished with one green talley (or demerit) per violation. On occasion, the monitor may go through every students' PACEs checking for discrepancies and rewarding them accordingly. Physical Education was the most common time for monitors to do their snooping. I remember one day I got two talleys and had squeaked by the rest of the day with no other talleys. When returning from physical education, I saw a note on the front of my Social Studies PACE with 5 check marks beside page numbers. with a note that said "You have 5 green talleys." I think that was the first time I ever uttered curses on the system. I got paddled the next day. The system sets a student up for failure. And encourages a student to cheat and try to beat the system. I felt like I had to cheat the system just to survive in that school.

Why compare the two systems? To prove that the ACE system puts too much on the student to learn. Matthew 23:4 references the words of Christ, when he rebuked the scribes and Pharasees for putting heavy loads on the backs of the laborers, with they themselves remain unwilling “to lift a finger.” The system allows too many ways for students to beat the system. It is very easy for the smarter students to simply learn material to pass the PACE tests. Because most (if not all) of the questions were pulled directly from the PACEs. Of course the student will love that. But academically it hurts the student. And the student doesn't have a clue.

The fact that your son is a sophomore in college is more of an exception to the rule. Most of the students that attended my ACE school did not go to college. One third to one half of them did not finish high school.

The rules of the school seemed to take precedence over the curriculum and instruction. I can quote to you the ACE handbook under "Standards of Conduct." "Students of this school are expected to refrain from talking about or enguaging in cheating, smoking, swearing, listening to rock music, drinking alcoholic beverages, and using narcotics. Students who participate in such activity are subject to suspension. Students are expected to act in accordingly, maintaining Christian standards of... meekness, morality, and honesty. If a student is aware of another participating in such activity he should immediately report it to a supervisor. THIS IS NOT TATTLING! All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

What happened to this concept? When you see your brother in sin, you go to him privately. That's Biblical. You don't immediately report him. But the ACE handbook says you find someone doing something and you report him. So in other words ACE wants people to stick their noses in other people's business and snitch on them. That is totally against what the Bible says. "He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears." (Proverbs 26:17, King James Version)

The problem with the ACE system is the fact that its participants do not realize the mess until later in life. Your children may have loved it, but but it probably hurt their development. One year in an ACE school will not hurt a child. But nine years of it definitely hurt me.

I don't know what else to say. The ACE system is no way to "Train up a child..."

I stumbled across this thread while looking for Bob Jones University stuff. I have one post on the subject, but wanted to see if there were any more. Nevertheless, I was intrigued at what I found concerning the ACE schools. I served at a church that sponsored an ACE school. In fact, I was on the board of that school. When I confronted the pastor's wife about some of the issues, she said they'd have to change the constitution to remove me.

Anyway, I thought I'd offer my "two cents" to the topic. To begin with, I observed the same issues mentioned by many. The lack of teachers and/or helpers was a major problem. In fact, the school almost lost a student when she had a diabetic attack and couldn't raise her little flag. When another student left her seat to render assistance and get help, she was disciplined. I'm all for discipline, but the type of discipline exercised through the ACE program is senseless. It is an asinine control method that teaches the children nothing. They spend more time waiting for someone to answer their little flag than they do actual work.

Then there is the issue of PACE's. The pastor and his wife would charge the parents for each PACE used, but the students were not allowed to keep the PACE booklets. They'd retrieve them, erase the markings, and "resell" the PACE booklets to the next unsuspecting parents. I always had a serious problem with that practice. In fact, they'd take students out of class to do the erasing. Sometimes it was as punishment, or other times it was for "extra credit."

Another problem with the ACE schooling (at least the one I was involved with) is that the students found it difficult, or almost impossible to be accepted by most colleges. One of our students was turned down by several colleges because she had an ACE high school diploma. By the way, but it was generated off the computer using a certificate template. I was appalled at that. The girl spent twelve years in that school, so the least they could have done is have a diploma professionally made. What she got was a PrintShop creation, and not even on card stock!!!

Enforcement of "the rules" was very lopsided and corporal punishment was meted out without consistency. Many of the children came from seriously dysfunctional homes where physical (and other forms) abuse was the norm, so "paddling" was not an effective means of correction. That was proven when I visited that church a few years ago and saw what the end result was of some of the students that I knew.

As far as I'm concerned, based on what I experienced, I would NOT put my children in an ACE school. Furthermore, the practices of the school I was involved with merit serious scrutiny. It seems to me that it's a means to "make a buck" and satisfy a controlling personality, which the pastor and his wife both had.

Selah!!!!