Since I started this blog, I’ve been hoping that the parents of an ACE homeschooler would contact me to share their views. Recently, I’ve gained quite probably the best correspondent I could possibly hope for on this blog. She wishes to remain anonymous, with good reason, so I will simply refer to her as Ms. Awesome.
Ms. Awesome’s epic rants about ACE and Christian Education Europe have graced my inbox on three occasions so far, and each time they’ve been absolute gold. Frankly, she should have her own blog. So I hereby present, with her blessing, the edited highlights of her demolition of ACE. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
First Email
I had my three children home educated since 2003 with the ACE curriculum. To begin with, it all fired off in earnest, the children were quite happy with their studying and I must admit that at the time I found the study material quite structured. The biblical aspect didn’t faze me too much, I just encouraged the children to ‘memorize’ the tracts merely for memory building….but, when it came to science, biology and history this did sort of raise quite a few questions, even my children would frown and wonder why christian people wouldn’t be more open about the world we live in!
With regards to the people who run the Maranatha House in Swindon, maybe one or two are professional and know about the current law in general, but as far as the rest are concerned, they are still stuck during the time of
Matthew Hopkins Witchfynder General!
The organization has had so many changes in personnel and so many upheavals in the running of the infrastructure, and curriculum content (four or five years ago they outmoded the complementary studying of GCSE’s and A Levels, which would have counted as grades for certification, on the grounds that they were not compatible with fundamental teachings!) that it has transformed into a greedy money making, openly homophobic, don’t give a blind damned about children or family welfare issues. Their current ‘principal’, Colin Slater, is an immature, caricaturish oaf who has little to no respect for anybody, is rude, ill mannered and embarrassingly unprofessional and ignorant! Arthur Roderick, well, what could I say about the poor blight, his head is in cloud cuckoo land but no where near the divinity he yearns for!! Aside from Mr Roderick and a small handful of others, the rest need to desperately go back to school and learn how to communicate effectively with the general public!
They shut the door on Jesus’s nose a long time ago, they are but an empty, dry husk that is slowly filling with utterly unrealistic and contradicting notions about some christian utopia when infact they are creating a dystopia. To be honest, they are behaving no different to Islamic fundamentalists or Jewish fundamentalists, total fruitcakes and dangerous with it.
I am relieved to be rid of that crazy mob, it took one visit to a seminar of theirs to put me on alert and be very careful with them.
I have also made Stonewall aware of these idiots and spoken to those in the teaching profession and counselling profession!
I hope this has given you an idea of how I feel about that infernal organization, I am confident that there must be more disgruntled and seriously angry former members out there who are genuinely scared to speak out for fear of reprisals from those fundi clowns!
Keep strong, because they don’t like the TRUTH.
After I received that little missive, I was keen to hear more. Ms. Awesome’s second salvo did not disappoint me…
Second Email
I have a ‘feeling’ that their little empire will eventually come down in flames, there are a lot of families pulling out of this ramshackle excuse of an educational provider. My children have found the infamous PACEs for sale on ebay!!! By the way, inspectors who check out home educated children studying Maranatha material voice reserve and actively encourage the addition of other study material to ‘fill’ out what appears to be gaps in the fundamentalist curriculae….so how they (CEE) managed to get this type of unothordox learning material
approved by the Quality and Assurance organization who vet examination boards, leave many questions unanswered. The only aspect of their learning material which is acceptably good are the grammar and mathematics, everything else needs to be brought back to reality because my children had to refer to mainstream books covering the sciences and history to garner the facts about our world!
I have been reading some entries in your blog and I must say that they all chilled me to the bone, especially the ones regarding physical abuse in the school environment….when I first received the introductory material upon enrolling my children, there was a large lever arch file that I had to return once I had read it. In there, I came upon a section about ‘punishing’ the disobedient child, smacking was actively encouraged to exert ‘control’. A couple of years down the line when government wanted to pass a law protecting children against violence in the home…CEE sent out a petition to overturn this, they still wanted parents to have the right to ‘smack’ their children…
I certainly wouldn’t mind paying the rail and cab fare to get me to Swindon and do several rounds with Colin Slater in a makeshift boxing ring, since they advocate
physical abuse, I am sure Colin wouldn’t mind if I flattened his nose and shattered one of his ribs and shouted at him that if he didn’t eat all his greens. Satan would subject him to a rectal probe infront of his minions!! Those nutcases need intervention from social services and education welfare departments… Islamic run schools have been investigated by social services and education welfare departments for inciting violence and racism against other communities and individuals…CEE should be put through this too and be made clear that they cannot hide behind their Christian mantle!
Oh yes, lest I forget, those infernal phonecalls from CEE checking on me if I will attend their annual pow wows which take place in the summer, a three day extravaganza consisting of waiting for the rapture, fellowship, fervent prayers and dressing up in clothing remiscent of a female quaker, and I am ecstatic in admitting that I have never turned up for any one of those mind boggling shindigs.
They don’t like ‘clever’ individuals who have the readies to chuck back at them….this is where they conveniently forget that Jesus was the biggest advocator of freedom of thought, feeling and speech…little do they know that they have crucified Him over and over ad infinitum.
After that, frankly I had enough to remain grinning for the rest of the week, but I had to ask Ms. Awesome if she had the same memories as me about the School of Tomorrow Procedures Manual, particularly its instructions on paddling children.
Third email
Oh yes, the School of Tomorrow lever arch file, or shall I aptly call it ‘An attempt at re-writing Dante’s
Divine Comedy‘. I did come across the ‘
paddle‘ but didn’t quite know what they meant…bloody hell, why didn’t they include finger nail extractions, tourniquets, garroting, sticking unruly kids in gibbets suspended from lightning struck trees populated by starved vultures. Oh yes, since they have a clearly misogynistic,
homophobic and
underhanded racist leanings, they might as well include methods in subduing the unruly wife, cast the son or daughter, who happens to have feelings for another of the same sex, into a pyre, gather citizens of African, Asian and Native American heritage and stick them in prison camps!!! I’ll never forget the tape with a very bad recording of some preacher screaming his larynx blue about following Christ’s path, he sounded like Yosemite Sam tanked up on narcotics and alcohol!
Thank you, Ms. Awesome. You’re welcome to write for this blog any time.
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Wow this will cause a stir at CEE! It will be passed off to staff and church as a satanic attack as we know they are the injured party! It is rare to get someone to speak out publicly, many send supportive emails, but almost all keep quiet for fear of reprisals. Well done Mrs Awsome.
I am no fan of ACE, but am a homeschooler. My kids are grown by the way. In my experience, the teachers make a big difference in ACE, and are the ones who pass on the non-thinking attitude. That is what I tried to instill in my children. Oh, we didn’t use ACE except for evaluation.
Thanks. for your comment. What do you mean by “except for evaluation”?
I think that means “I’m still gullible partially” or “I’m really a fool”.
I say: Let God’s Word decide the rights and wrongs of the issues in this post, let us not have any ‘modern, feel good, humanistic’ interpretation on what is Biblical. I am genuinely surprised that MS Awesome was ever attracted to the ACE curriculum that clearly states that its emphasis is on the development of Christian character and Biblical values (not politically correct values).
I find the attack on individuals to be ungracious and frankly to undermine the serious nature of these posts.
I hope there may be other ACE families who can voice genuine and constructive concerns in a gracious manner.
Read JC Ryle on ‘Holiness’
That is exactly how it should be, Debbie, letting God decide the rights and wrongs, instead of a group of over stuffed, self empowered bigots playing cruel games with children and their parents. I am pleased that former members of ACE have the courage to expose the not so clearly perfect aspect of this already questionable organisation that is insidiously destroying lives, same goes for the darker aspects of Islamic ethics and Hassidic ethics being brought into the public light!!! Bullies do not deserve to be treated graciously, constructively or with loving abandon. End of.
I understand the anger, but personal attacks arent going to help anybody. We all have to be careful that in the fervor of expressing our political ideals we dont sound just like them. I hate to admit it but they have just as much of a right to think the way they do, but NEVER to subject it onto others