I thought this was somewhat interesting. I found a little similarity between ACE and Scientology. Open a different tab or window in your browser. Of course you knew that. Or maybe you couldn't figure that out if twelve years of ACE turned your brain into complete mush. Anyway, go to the following web site:

[xenu.net]

Scroll down about 2/3 of the way down the page. Look for the picture with the caption: Inspector General Representatives. Apparently these are members of the Scientology police that keep order in that cult.

Ok, now open another tab or window. And go to the following web site.

[www.aceministries.com]

You will see a red button that reads, "For four years of exciting ACE history, CLICK HERE." Your browser will open or download a timeline.pdf file. Scroll down to the second page. Look at the picture under the year 1979. "First students enroll in the International Institute." Do you see the similarity? When I saw this I had to direct your attention. If you didn't know already, Scientology is a bad organization. Look at Scientology resources all around culteducation.com. Looking at these two pictures side by side makes me kinda laugh to myself because the school I attended was becoming a cult. No one really saw it because the church actually maintained some sort of normal image but the ACE school that lived within behaved much like a cult. I posted a story about some young ladies on November 19, 2009 08:45PM. And the point I made was that the cult-like aura started small among a few and festered in the ACE school, until it infected the whole church body.

There are any similarities between Lester Roloff and L. Ron Hubbard. But that's for another posting...

Accelerated Christian Education has done a great job in providing an alternative to public education systems...

Take a look at how the American Public Education System has done in regards to educating its citizens... Americans score very low academically in comparison to the rest of the world, but very highly in terms of self esteem.

What is it that we want to teach our children? How much of what they learn in school is actually going to be of any use to them? Are we teaching them to feel good about doing badly? Teachers restricted in how they mark their students exams for fear of hurting the child's self esteem. They believe in allowing the child to decide for themselves what is right.

Just recently, the idea of "Unschooling" has propped up. Just searching about it on the net gives one a good idea.

I think it is commonly know that the public school system has failed our children. Accelerated Christian Education has done a rather good job of trying to carry some of the slack. Students who come through this system have a better ability to handle reality than the common student.

There is almost nothing wrong with the curriculum in itself... the problems that have arisen have to do with the people who try to run schools that use the ACE PACEs...

I will put all of my kids through the ACE system, since I am confident of its results.

Thank you for your knowledge on this matter. Is there a study on the graduation rate at ACE schools? What percentage of graduates go to college? What percentage receive college degrees? How do these stats compare to public schools?

Where I came from, of those who stuck to the system, 94% graduated... Of those graduates... 72% chose to go on to higher learning and proceeded to get a degree, and of those, 15% topped their respective classes. The other 18% choose to either hit the labor force immediately, or took up volunteer work... (I graduated, and am now working on my qualifications as an air traffic controller)

On the other hand, the public schools where I was had varying pass rates... from 18% in one of the more athletics orientated schools, to 98% in one of the top public schools...

My school did receive a lot of public school dropouts because their parents didn't know where else to send them... Although fees were higher than usual for most private schools, the parents were willing to send their students to the school since it has had a high success rate, along with its other sister schools...

It must be taken into account, that the bigger and more well know the school is, the more likely it is for brighter students to be attracted there. Other, less know schools are more likely to get the average to less than average students... thus maybe lowering their overall results... but all ACE schools in my area have done above average in dealing with poorer students.

I must admit though, that may have to do with the fact that my school was not run by a church, but rather, was run by a board of very highly qualified people from different churches... so this removed any possibility of a cult or sect movement, since the school was interdenominational...

I only wish that all other ACE schools would try to uphold similar standards and not destroy the ACE curriculum by using abusive methods of teaching that undermine the learning capabilities of each individual child...

Yes I agree, most of the people I know that went to ACE schools either dropped out and got a GED, graduated from there but never went to college or only did a a couple of semesters of college. The environment of an ACE school, sitting at an office never being taught by anyone does not prepare you for the classroom. especially since the paces are from the 70's still and it's 2010 now.

That part about the preacher saying you should not be involved in community activities is hilarious. religious nut trying to spread his insanity onto others...gotta love it. it's quite disturbing how the religous nuts of churches too usually end up being the "supervisors" of the church schools.

Scientology; the more money and time you give to them, the higher you move up in level.

Pentecostal church I grew up in; The more money and time you give to them, the higher you move up in level.

Example; My father was Asst. Pastor and whenever they had a pledge drive he was expected to give at the highest level. If he didnt he would have been ousted, which is what happened to him after 16 years of faithfulness.

I was thinking back on when I was about 11. It was YEAR SIX in an ACE school. I wanted to learn things. I wanted to really badly. ACE had other plans. ACE makes students do the jobs the teachers should do, leaving students to take up their time scoring their own work, setting their own goals and getting one demerit/tally for every scoring error they make. 3 demerits/tallies earns you 20 minutes of detention. 4 earns you 30 minutes. 5 earns you 45. 6 earns you 60. And 7 earns you a paddling. Constantly worrying about that, in addition to setting goals, check work, raising flags to go to the scoring station, and other bullcrap leaves a student's mind in no condition to have any desire for learning. And even if the supervisor and monitors did all the scoring and setting goals for us, leaving us to work our PACEs with no distraction, the PACEs contained only a little true knowledge mingled in with a slough stories about Ace and Baba, the persecution of Lester Roloff (founder of the Rebekah homes), and other fictional tales of life in Highland (the make believe land that Ace lived in). WTF?

databass - I agree wholeheartedly. Reading through this thread, I'm amazed at how many people were damaged by these schools. My school was "supposedly" non-denominational, as I'm sure most of them are, but when it really came down to it they people running the school did not foster enthusiasm for learning -- they encouraged learning the system, which I did (just to survive). I don't think I got more than a demerit or two, but I did get the paddle once, and it was for saying a word I heard another kid say. I didn't even know what it meant, but I owned up to it and was punished. Another time I was called into the office for calling someone a racial name. That time I had not said what I was accused of and don't know where the accusation even came from. Luckily, the director believed me because I had owned up to my previous offense and I was spared the paddle. But the sound of the paddle was enough to keep most of us in line. However, there were some kids who were challenged in other ways and they were in there month after month, and the sounds would carry throughout the large common area where all the stations were. Everything -- from the way you requested to use the bathroom to the precise scheduling of the day to the fire and brimstone preaching we listened to every morning -- was meant to keep little minds in-line. It was a horrible three years of my developmental life and I'm sure my experience there had a not insignificant effect on my quite severe battles with depression and hopelessness later in life.

The day my parents told me I was leaving the school (because there was an upcoming mandatory religious retreat for all students and my Catholic parents were fed up with the school's attempt to "convert" their now eleven-year-old son) still goes down as one of the best days of my life. I remember being called into the Director's office and being questioned about why my parents were pulling me out. I lied and said I had no idea. Whatever he could do to me for lying was fine if he caught me. I wouldn't have to deal with it much longer.

I feel sad that any child would have to go through what I went through during my years at an ACE school.

I really feel it crippled any enthusiasm I had for learning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2011 05:26AM by SPG900.

Funny you should menion lying, SPG900. That was one way I learned to skirt an impossible system. In YEAR NINE I was assigned "Fox's Book of Martyrs" for English Literature. I had to read this book and answer questions associated with it. The study guide mentioned a book under the same title but with a different publisher than the one I was given. The ACE study guide called for what seemed to be a young reader's edition or something like that. But they made me do the real edition. Anyway, like the good student I was, I stuffed the study guide in the back cover and let it sit in my office. A few months later my supervisor/principal came to my office and (instead of saying something like, "May I please look at that book?") snatched it up as he had the habit of doing with others. He found the study guide and growled something about having it for two months too long. He said something like, "You'll finish it over the weekend!" and slammed it down on top of my office. I took it home and worked on it for hours and simply started putting in whatever answer I wanted to put in and got most of it completed. And the following week I would cut my lunch in half so I could go back and work on it. He would complement me on my diligence. But little did he know that I would simply copy the answers out of the score key and that was easy to do in an empty Learning Center. I finished my little scam over that week and took the PACE test the following week. I scored something like 86% on it, thanks to my skills of deception. For teaching me how to cheat and lie at such an early age, SCREW YOU ACE!