Quote
lwr32
I'm glad for the experience of the ACE system. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have know it was out there. I can see the potential good in it, if run right and the usefulness of the PACE system for catching up on schoolwork if needed.
If home-schooled by an untrained parent or the student happens to attend a "School of Tomorrow" run by unaccredited faculty, the student would fall behind if he/she wanted to eventually rejoin a public school. I was unceremoniously kicked out of my "School of Tomorrow" just before 12th grade started because my deadbeat dad failed to pay the bill. When faced with paying my own way through ACE home school or going to a public high school, I chose ACE home school for the simple fact that I would have to repeat at least one grade in public school in most subjects (save English, as my Supervisor had an advanced English degree).
In hindsight, however, I would have volunteered to repeat TWO grades in public school, with all it had to offer compared to ACE. Art, Design, and Media programs to prepare me for college? Sign me up at public school any day. ACE is an utter failure.
I keep hearing arguments on the difference between a good or bad ACE school, as if it makes any difference. My ACE school won multiple apple awards from ACE. It was a model school. It still had a fraction of what a decent public school has to offer. You learn garbage "Creation Science" in ACE, which is easily debunked by any competent Science teacher. You learn History in Social Studies from a skewed Evangelical perspective that actually spoke positively on the apartheid. In my ACE school, Computer Literature was teaching BASIC when all other public schools were teaching Windows. Public Schools provide media, art, computers, trips around the world, multiple sports, clubs, activities, and scholarship opportunities that ACE doesn't provide.
When it comes to the quality of "teaching" you get in ACE, you are at the mercy of volunteer monitors. Our Supervisors were paid, but monitors were volunteers. Per 30 students, in the morning, we had about 3 or 4 monitors who moved at their own pace, and had the attitude that students should be grateful they were even there. In the afternoon, the number of monitors diminished to 2, and I found myself at times waiting for 20-30 minutes in the afternoon for someone to answer my Christian flag for something simple like scoring.
When I think back to scoring procedure, I can't help but think, "how stupid!" Seriously. Why on earth would ACE intentionally limit the efficiency of my workday by forcing me to wait for an answered flag to score? Why is it a PRIVILEGE to score without asking? I have to EARN the right to work more efficiently? I have to earn a level to do that? ACE is hurting the student's progress for no good reason at all.