Republicans, Racism, and the ritual abuse of children: The ABC's of A.C.E.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Republicans, Racism, and the ritual abuse of children: The ABC's of A.C.E.

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Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Accelerated Christian Education Social Studies PACE 1086 (1990, p.29) posted:

The government must be responsible to the taxpayers who provide the money that the government spends. Since that is true only taxpayers should be given the privilege of voting�

The apartheid policy of South Africa is a modern example of this principle. Under the apartheid system, the population of five million Whites controls most of the nation�s wealth. If apartheid were done away with, the twenty million Blacks, who are not taxpayers, would be given the privilege of voting. Within a short period of time they would control the government and the means of taxation. �The power to tax is the power to destroy.� Heavy taxation could become a burden to the property owners who actually finance the government and provide jobs. Economics is the major reason that apartheid exists. Some people want to abolish apartheid immediately. That action would certainly alter the situation in South Africa, but would not improve it

Talen Lee posted:

In what almost every reasonable person considers a school, with a curriculum and with oversight and with staff, there�s this phenomenon of social collusion. Even if you don�t plan for it, most of the time, people observe work, and they observe students. Being observed influences how the students react, and the work being observed will shape in the mind of the teachers the ways to interact with those students. This is an ecosystem of attention, where people are disposed to pay attention to one another�s interactions, and where information passes from point to point without any deliberate design. Teachers in these contexts will see students as students, and they talk about them with other adults, often other teachers or professional educators of some stripe. In these systems, with information flowing from place to place as reports, double-checking or just plain gossip, make it hard to maintain a truly oppressive level of control.

The ACE system removes all those things. The ACE system does not need planning. The ACE system discourages planning. Give children PACES, it says. When they finish their work too soon, either give them more PACES, or encourage them to keep advancing in the PACEs they have. Crafts, sports, all that stuff can be filled in, if you must, but the bulk of education is through a blind, rote system that does not know the child, does not observe the child, and does not care about the child. The students do not interact with one another, meaning peers do not observe other children struggling, do not gain extra perspective on challenging problems � and the questions are sculpted to fit that. It does not need explanation, because the entire system is so simple that after a few months in almost all subjects, you will become proficient in how to answer the specific style of PACE questions. You could replace PACEs with Sudoku puzzle books for how they teach you � you become very, very good at answering the specific types of questions that the PACEs want to ask. Oh, as you grow older, you�ll have to write out larger sections of text, but you won�t ever have to engage with the question, just with the structure of a sentence.

Like cattle grids and fences, the ACE system is very good at managing a large group. Instead of needing a number of teachers for each group of students, there is a social order, a structure that people have to fit themselves in, like the Panopticon. If you differentiate, it will be seen. You can�t talk to someone, you can�t reach out. You will comply, you will obey, and you will conform

]

Welcome to the thread for discussing one of the primary methods via which white supremacists/Christian dominionists have managed to transmit their ideology on to the next generation: Accelerated Christian Education. Published by School of Tomorrow the A.C.E. system was the original pioneer of American religious-based church/homeschooling and at its peak operated about 10,000 schools in the US. (Hard numbers do not exist because School of Tomorrow does not keep those records and is protected from the need to do so by various RFRA laws.) The A.C.E. K-12 curriculum is a political tool that was first released in 1970 with the primary goal of enabling racist church's to operate their own school and thereby avoid school integration. The program since then has been adopted/supported quietly behind the scenes by a Conservative thinktank called the "Council for National Policy" (primarily a place for Libertarians, Birchers, Christian dominionists and white supremacists to network) and over the years the curriculum has resultingly become a confused mish-mash of the worst parts of those ideologies. Some examples from the curriculum:

As you can imagine everything about A.C.E. is complex, from the way it uses the Operant Conditioning theories of B.F. Skinner on children (Skinner experimented on animals and considered the idea of using his research on humans to be unconscionable) to the complex network of political operatives that have legislatively supported it and kept it (and its true agenda) out of the public eye. (There will be a good number of effortposts in this thread that will try and tackle each of these topics in turn.) I believe that understanding A.C.E. is very important right now because the political actors behind A.C.E. are the same ones behind Betsy Devos: and in point of fact A.C.E. is at present serving as a model for how Devos wants to restructure American education.

However in order to address a topic this complex and this massive I must start somewhere, and that place will be with a birds-eye view of what the experience of A.C.E. is like for the average student. Be forewarned that what you see in this OP has been chosen specifically to be the mildest examples of abuse of a virtual panopticon of horror. From this point out this thread will contain very vivid depictions of child abuse and its impacts on the psyche: reader beware.

I will end this OP with an actual advertisement for the A.C.E. system. In this video a cheery voice will happily describe children as livestock that must be forcefully controlled at all times while learning. (It does this with an animated donkey-and-carrot that it uses to explain A.C.E.'s education philosophy.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBUw4iWepk0

Prester Jane has issued a correction as of 18:12 on Apr 15, 2018

# ? Oct 18, 2017 15:37

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# ? May 5, 2024 08:21

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Christian Perspectives for Education posted:

The psychological foundation for this approach is the �operant conditioning� theory of B.F. Skinner. The human organism is determined by his environment, and susceptible to behavioural conditioning. Skinner has no respect for the supposed faculties of critical reasoning. ACE stands in direct line of succession to those who sought, by emotional manipulation, to obtain decisions for Christ which by-pass the individual�s rational autonomy, but it cashes in also on the improved manipulative techniques discovered by modern behavioural psychology.

David Berliner posted:

...low-level cognitive tasks that emphasize simple association and recall activities, as is typical of instruction from workbooks... the materials make heavy use of behavioral objectives, programmed learning, and rewards.

Phi Delta Kappa posted:

If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world � one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall � then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking.

A.C.E. is designed as a top down, literal Skinner Box for children. Every action is monitored and either immediately punished or rewarded. Students work alone in total silence, there is no social interaction or group projects. There are no lectures, there are no lesson plans, and there are no actual teachers. All there is are workbooks called "PACE's" (Packets of Accelerated Christian Education) and "Supervisors" to monitor the students progress. "Whats in a PACE" you ask? Well, lets let the worlds foremost critic of A.C.E. walk you through a 9th grade ("Year 10" in the British system) World History PACE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_2tCMlHEBI

Everything is regimented and there are strict procedures for even the most mundane of tasks. This is because A.C.E. is designed on the principle that "The Leaders of Tomorrow" will be office workers. Therefor A.C.E. believes that imitating a political/corporate office environment as much as possible is the best way to prepare children- the schooling environment is resultingly designed to imitate a (bastardized ideal of) an office environment wherever possible. I don't know any better way to explain the gist of it so I will just go through a typical day of my experience.

I would arrive in the morning and we would all gather in the chapel for morning worship. (Like the majority of A.C.E. schools, our was hosted by a church.) The pastor would get in front of us with his guitar and we would sing songs about how awesome Jesus was. Seventy or so students k-12 (An unusually large school for A.C.E.) would belt out one terrible racket, worse than you might even be imagining right now. My particular cult believed that polyharmonics were demonic infiltration from Negro spirituals to distract from the message of God's word, so when we sang it was generally everybody, women, men, and children of all ages, trying to awkwardly all sing the same note, It was terrible.

Then after singing we would say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Bible. Then we would all open our bibles and recite the bible verse of the month, which was actually more like a random entire page of biblical text. There was a reward of you could recite the entire thing without your bible at the end of the month.(Usually candy and some "merits".)

After that it was a word of prayer and it was off to our desks, where we would spent much of the rest of the day.

I really do need to spend some time here describing these desks. They are exactly as you see in that picture. Each student got their own desk and stored all their PACE's and assorted supplies there. At my school the backboard of the desk was a pinboard and it too was extremely regimented. There were specific places for your Goal Chart, your Star Chart, and various other A.C.E. specific things. We were however allowed one motivational poster of our choice as long as it featured a bible verse on it.We sat in total silence at our desks all day. We worked alone except for brief interactions with your supervisors

A quick note on Supervisors and Monitors.(Monitors are lesser ranked than Supervisors but can authorize the student to perform certain tasks like scoring or using the restroom.) These are not teachers, at all. At my school the only person with a College Degree was the "Principle" whom was also the Pastor of the cult that ran the school. Everyone else working at the school had only High School diploma's, or in some cases, not even that. When my Mother was hired as a Supervisor at the School it caused quite a stir because she was the first Supervisor with a College degree. (A two year Horticulture degree from, I poo poo you not, the College of Wooster, a primarily Mennonite/Amish community.) For the record, the Pastor had an advanced degree (I think a Masters) in Chemistry. He was also a fervent Young Earth Creationist.

Back to the daily grind. So the first activity at your desk was 15 minutes of either reading your bible or bowing your head in prayer, your choice. (Such freedom).Then you would gather all your paces and your "goal chart" and write out which pages you were going to do that day (generally 4 pages per PACE) on your goal chart. Your goal chart would need to be approved and signed off on by a Supervisor, although it didn't have to be right away.

Then it was time to start work. You were free to pick any PACE to start working in, but your options were usually a little forced by a few factors. Certain pages would have stamped at the top either "Supervisor" indicating that you needed to get approval from a Supervisor before you could work on that page, or "Monitor" indicating that either a Supervisor or Monitor needed to sign off on you starting work on that page. This was often in the case of a page with say 3-4 paragraphs of reading, you would need to read it out loud to the Supervisor before you could go on to the comprehension questions. As you have seen in the above video, the comprehension questions are just lifted verbatim from the text. At my school we had the additional task of having to underline each sentence that related to a particular question, number the question it related too, and then highlight in yellow the exact words that we were using in our answer. Many subjects included such pages of reading, so it was often the case that you flipped through your pages for the day and figured out what work you could do at the moment, raised your flag and did what work you could while you waited. (Usually Math).

This is where favoritism first starts to rear its head in this system. If a Supervisor didn't particularly like you (and mine didn't owing to my parents not joining the Church, a controversial decision to say nothing of the issues my gender dysphoria caused) then you could be waiting quite a while to get approval in order to work. I was frequently left with literally no work I was authorized to do and had to just sit and wait till the Supervisor came by and initialed my PACE so that I could actually work.

Other things you needed to get permission to do included using the restroom or "scoring". Scoring meant taking your PACE to the "scoring table" in the middle of the room. The scoring table had all the "scoring keys" which were copies of your PACE with all the correct answers filled in. The student would then use a red pen and go line by line looking for their own mistakes. Answers had to be exact, no exceptions:

Leaving Fundamentalism: "A readymade toolkit for Institutionalized oppression." posted:

There was something strange going on. I realised that when as a seven year old, when I was stuck at the score-key, looking at my PACE with concern. The question stalling me had been a two-blanker (quite advanced, I felt). The question was � for example � something like � _____ and ______ happen during thunderstorms.�
I had written rain and thunder. The score-key said thunder and rain.

When I finally cracked and called for a monitor, seeking their judgement, I watched a grown man, his moustache twitching, consider very, very carefully the words before him. The answer was an obvious one, wasn�t it? The answers were effectively the same. I had internalised the concept. I understood what the question wanted to know, but I hadn�t answered it in precisely the way it had wanted. A teacher would, in this situation, probably let it go, or, at the least, provide me with a reason to change it.

Eventually, he shook his head, defeated by the challenge of it. �Mark it wrong,� he said. �Go back to your desk and fix it.�

That was this environment. There was no questioning authority over you; you obeyed it. Even when your own common sense indicated otherwise, you had to be able to tell that there was something strange going on.

Once you finished scoring you would take your PACE back to your desk, correct any mistakes, raise your flag and then go back and "rescore", certifying that there were now no mistakes on the page. You had to do this for each individual PACE, you were not allowed to take multiple PACE's up at once because that was cheating somehow. You had to get permission to score each individual PACE. It was like this for everything, literally everything. Tedious, bureaucratic, and unnecessarily complicated by arbitrary rules.

After a couple hours of this it would be time for the first break, and this is where the hierarchy amongst students started to be on display. All breaks ended at the same time, but not all breaks started at the same time. You see there were three "merit levels" a student could attain for good behavior and consistently meeting goals. (A-level, C-level, and the much coveted E-level) The higher your merit rank (assuming you had attained one) the longer your breaks and the longer your lunch. E-level even conferred the benefits of being able to excuse yourself to the scoring table, a major, and I do mean major, major loving convenience. E-level was primarily attained by completing your goals (completing your prescribed number of pages each day) and this task was made infinitely easier by being able to go score whenever you needed to. So even children learn that those at the top have an inherent advantage. This is not an accident, this is by design.

A series of bells would ring, 5 minutes apart each to let the various levels know when they could go on break. Students would excuse themselves by merit level until only those with no level were left, and they got the shortest breaks. Thusly, even in recess, you knew whom the good kids who did their work and whom the bad kids whom didn't do their work were, and the kids on higher merit levels lorded their special privileges over us.

If you think that many of the church elders had their children in the school and were also the Supervisors, you would be right. If you would then go on to assume that said elders children were massively favored, you would again be right. Because my parents were not members of the church (Because, get this, the church itself was a bit too liberal for my parents taste) by the age of six the elders kids had figured out that they could bully me without fear of repercussions. Even years later when at the age of 14 I entered a public school for the first time in my life with no friends and no social skills whatsoever, the bullying I received in High School was comparatively tame to what I endured under the care of these godly people and their hellspawn.

After break there would be another work period at your desk, then lunch. After lunch was another work period, another break, and then some sort of other activity. Wednesdays for example were "Chapel" a grueling 2 hour endurance test of a sermon. Tuesdays were "Bible Study" where one of the random elders would take a small group of us (segregated by age and gender, like everything else) and do a detailed study of some portion of the bible or other. And by detailed I mean loving insane, even by fundamentalist standards. Jesus Christ when I was eleven they taught us [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jephthah]the story Jephthah[/url], where a patriarch literally murders his own daughter and offers her body up as a burnt offering (as thanks for victory on the battlefield) as a [b]GOOD story, because Jepthath was a godly man and kept his word. Thusly the Lord proceeded to bless him. This was literally an example to be followed. Dude says "If I win this battle I will sacrifice the first thing that walks out of my front door when I return" and when its his only daughter who walks out he goes "whelp" and brutally sacrifices her. That is the level of loving insane that was imparted in these bible studies. I imagine only the men got that particular lesson, the women probably got something from the book of Jude. (In A.C.E. a woman's role is to cook dinner and make babies. If she wants a profession she can become a Piano Tutor.<---not kidding, literally only a Piano Tutor.)

Then the day would start to wrap up. Any unfinished pages were marked as homework, and any Demerits accrued during the day were counted up. If you had 3+ Demerits it meant detention the next day and you would get a special colored slip to take home to your parents to let them know of your misbehavior as well as to let them know to come pick you up later than normal. 7+ Demerits meant a whack (corporal punishment)

And that was pretty much it. Day in and day out, very little variation. Very great drudgery. Like most intelligent kids whom wind up in that system, I was absolutely miserable.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 15:37

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

And now to conclude my opening barrage of posts here is a sampling of the A.C.E. curriculum. This is all presented without commentary because (quite frankly) it speaks plainly for itself.

(This is a 1st grade "art" exercise)

Prester Jane has issued a correction as of 15:41 on Oct 18, 2017

# ? Oct 18, 2017 15:37

Mycroft Holmes: Mar 26, 2010; by Azathoth

Sorry GBS chased you off. I thought the thread was both interesting and depressing.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 16:00

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Mycroft Holmes posted:

Sorry GBS chased you off. I thought the thread was both interesting and depressing.

Thank you, I got several messages of support from Goons (and one mod who mentioned he liked the thread in an unrelated conversation) so I figured it was worth rehosting here. GBS is gonna GBS and no amount of good-faith effort can change that while the MAGAchud crew is allowed to roam free.

Anywho its my hope that this thread can bring a little bit of exposure to this problem and just maybe we can all find some comedy in this. I have no art skills but A.C.E. comics are absolutely ripe for parody- several posters in the other thread made some hilarious comics with dinosaurs spouting off about obedience to God and the like. I hope this thread turns out to be a better place to nurture some good old piss-takes

Also this thread is important because A.C.E. is the future of American education. The same people who are behind A.C.E. are the ones who put Devos into place and are openly guiding her policies.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 16:06

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

i think these people need to repent and submit to the will of the holy father in rome op

# ? Oct 18, 2017 16:22

slumdoge millionare: Feb 17, 2006; by FactsAreUseless; Grimey Drawer

Well, that's pretty disturbing. The fact that this is what DeVos thinks works best for developing minds is horrifying.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 16:48

eonwe: Aug 11, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

I grew up in a small town in Texas and thought I was desensitized to to Christianity seeping into education but uh....my only response is :stare:

i am legit sorry you had to go through this

the most galling thing to me was the scoring / E-Level thing

# ? Oct 18, 2017 16:49

heard u like girls: Mar 25, 2013

Insane in the membrane

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:01

the bitcoin of weed: Nov 1, 2014

modeling childhood education off of a bureacratic office environment is the most evil thing imaginable jesus christ

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:09

Carmant: Nov 23, 2015; Treadmill? What's that? Is that some kind of cake?

Jesus is Lord and Savior, OP. Sorry you can't deal with this??

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:10

Who What Now: Sep 10, 2006; by Azathoth

Carmant posted:

Jesus is Lord and Savior, OP. Sorry you can't deal with this??

He's not a very good one by the looks of this.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:13

Carmant: Nov 23, 2015; Treadmill? What's that? Is that some kind of cake?

Who What Now posted:

He's not a very good one by the looks of this.

Only to sinners

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:20

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

StashAugustine posted:

i think these people need to repent and submit to the will of the holy father in rome op

catholicism is getting a good look these days in our atomized culture, with lefty catholics pushing re-introducing augustine for a younger crowd and tradcaths championing gk chesterton

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:25

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Doomtalker posted:

Well, that's pretty disturbing. The fact that this is what DeVos thinks works best for developing minds is horrifying.

Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms.

Washington Post posted:

A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urges the dismantling of the Education Department and bringing God into American classrooms.

The five-page document produced by the Council for National Policy calls for a �restoration of education in America� that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools and home schooling and enshrine �historic Judeo-Christian principles� as a basis for instruction.

Names of the council�s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing that Stephen K. Bannon � now chief White House strategist for President Trump � was a member and that Kellyanne Conway � now counselor to the president � served on the council�s executive committee.

DeVos was not listed as a member, but her mother, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, was named on the council�s board of governors. Her father-in-law, Amway founder Richard DeVos Sr., twice served as president, most recently from 1990 to 1993. And she and her husband have given money to the council as recently as 2007 through their family foundation, according to federal tax records.

These are selections from the book White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative movement.

Since its founding in 1981 the CNP has served as a meeting ground and coordination center for various players in movement conservativism. For a demonstration of the actual power that resulted from these associations I would like to reference an incident with an A.C.E. facility that is very famous. A child abuse factory run by a man named Lester Roloff was shut down by the Texas govt for the horrific abuses it was perpetuating on young girls. Then governor of Texas George W. Bush personally intervened to reopen the facility and passed a RFRA law that protected it and all facilities like it from virtually all forms of state oversight. (He later quietly passed a federal version of the same law, making A.C.E,. facilities mostly invisible to state governments) You can read the the thing for yourself here: Remember the Christian Alamo.

Although the article does not mention A.C.E. Lester Roloff was actually the top promoter of A.C.E. in the US at the time and used it in all his facilities. Here is a description of the conditions at the facility that the Texas Gov't shut down:

Fornits article on Rebekah Home for Wayward Girls posted:

Licks: Being spanked with a wood paddle. Other times, whatever was handy was used. (i.e. the rod from a set of blinds)

Confinement: Spending weeks hanging her head without speaking or making eye contact with anyone. This punishment was called "red shirt" or "discipline". The former name being due to the fact that these "deviant" girls were given only red and white checkered shirts to wear. They were only allowed to wear any other shirt when they went to bed. They were also made to stand with their nose to the wall and their arms at their sides all day. A 10 minute break allowed if they complied to the Helper's satisfaction. Many times the Helper would forget to give them a break. In this instance, the Red Shirts just had to remain silent and hope for a break to be given. Or, the Red Shirt could take a demerit (or three) for raising their hand to remind the helper or taking their nose off the wall-- no matter what, the Red Shirt will be in trouble for the Helper's oversight. More often than not, the Helper was sitting at a desk with nothing better to do than critique them.

Sitting on the wall: Being required sitting (suspended above the floor, as if there was a chair beneath them) with the back against a wall and without the support of a chair, arms outstretched with the palms flat against the wall. Helpers would come around to each girl and place a book on their thighs, if the book slipped off, they would push the girl's hips down. If they failed twice, they might have to start over.

Kneeling: Being ordered to kneel, while either have two bibles resting on each outstretched palm or with pencils wedged between the legs.

The lockup: An isolation room used as solitary confinement. During the stay in the lockup the intercom piped in hourlong prayers from the pastor (Lester Roloff or Wiley B. Cameron) that would play in loops 24 hours a day. The detained girl could use a toilet but there was no possibility to wash or bathe. Girls have told of terrible smelling survivors of the lockup when they were released after a month of isolation.

Calesthenics:* Girls would do laps (1 lap run + 1 lap walk = 1 lap) for first 5 demerits, and then 100 of chosen exercise for every demerit after that up to 10. "cherry pickers", "calf lifts", "jumping jacks", "squats", "arm cirles", "lunges", "leg lifts", "kills" (10 slow "calf lifts", 10 fast "calf lifts", jumping 10 times, 10 "scissor jumps", 10 half jumping jacks, 10 whole jumping jacks, and then going back through the exercises finishing with the 10 slow "calf lifts"= 1 Kill= 1 demerit worked off) etc. No matter how hot it was, you would do the exercise outside. When it would sleet or was below freezing, they would let the girls do their exercises either on the enclosed patio or inside. As mentioned, after 10 demerits, it was one lick for every 2 demerits. If you had 20+ demerits, your licks would be transferred to the next day. If you recieved demerits the next day and you ended up with 20+ again (that day's demerits PLUS the rollovers), they would continue to roll over until Sunday. Being the day of rest, you didn't have to work off demerits. You attended church twice a day and rested. Demerits started at 0 on Monday, unless you were on someone's bad side. Although it may seem like it would be easy to avoid getting to that point, it wasn't. Helpers were rewarded for giving out the most demerits. Not with an award, but Bro. Mac would verbalize his admiration for their righteousness or begin to give them extra privileges or leniencies.

Here is a video of the "Honeybees"- a choir made up mostly of the "helpers" mentioned above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8pdtt0Atw

Roloff toured the country and used the Honeybees to tout the success of the A.C.E. system. If you watch that video you can clearly see that all these women are victims of severe trauma and are so tuned in to their abuser that they respond instantly and in unison to his slightest prompt. The dead-eyed stare and monotone voices of these women give away just how broken they have become as a result of the hellish ritual abuse and conditioning they have experienced.

Here is a small segment of a Lester Roloff sermon from the late 70's. You can hear some of the same ideas that have now become popular in modern times on the right being used in this sermon.

[video type="youtube"]/watch?time_continue=3&v=_flemNafqRE[/video]

And finally here is how A.C.E. remembers the events around Rebekah Home:

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:31

That Robot: Sep 16, 2004; ask me anything about robots; Buglord

op I liked your thread in gbs

and I like this one too

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:34

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

If you are wondering why such an obvious conspiracy like that exists without a peep from the likes of Alex Jones let me explain that to you in two easy videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU9z9zBerrU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSes8fPRrvU

# ? Oct 18, 2017 17:35

Weltlich: Feb 13, 2006; Grimey Drawer

I guess the thing that sticks out to me the most is not just high weirdness of the curriculum itself, but the massive infrastructure investment needed to start one of these "schools." It's the pairing of both dubious education and a cash-grab scheme. Buy not only the books and the PACEs, but also these desks, and a little American flag for each desk, and I'm sure somewhere even the type of chair is mandated and of course one person is making the specific chair that is needed.

This falls right in line with prosperity gospel doctrine that says you can spot God's chosen by looking at who is making massive amounts of money. And if you're getting people to pay you to promote the Lord, then you're doubly blessed.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 18:31

Ruzihm: Aug 11, 2010; Group up and push mid, proletariat!

This is fascinating. I'm terribly sorry you had to grow up in that kind of environment. Thanks for sharing.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 18:58

Sestze: Jun 6, 2004; Cybernetic Crumb

Thanks for reposting. Sorry for making GBS threads up the original thread.

edit: oh yeah, in recent news the pro-charter L.A school board member got caught laundering campaign money. The only real hobble that DeVoss will have to try to push a majority charter-school education system is going to be her underlings' underlying greed.

Sestze has issued a correction as of 19:58 on Oct 18, 2017

# ? Oct 18, 2017 19:45

Waffle House: Oct 27, 2004; You follow the path
fitting into an infinite pattern.

Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild.

Now, in the quantum moment
before the closure
when all become one.

One moment left.
One point of space and time.

I know who you are.

You are Destiny.

That Robot posted:

op I liked your thread in gbs

and I like this one too

Ya sorry about the CHUDs

# ? Oct 18, 2017 20:06

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Waffle House posted:

Ya sorry about the CHUDs

Meh. They've decided to try and play head games with a schizophrenic. Its going real well for them right now in my callout thread in GBS too :a2m:

# ? Oct 18, 2017 20:14

GoluboiOgon: Aug 19, 2017; by Nyc_Tattoo

quote:

You see there were three "merit levels" a student could attain for good behavior and consistently meeting goals. (A-level, C-level, and the much coveted E-level) The higher your merit rank (assuming you had attained one) the longer your breaks and the longer your lunch. E-level even conferred the benefits of being able to excuse yourself to the scoring table, a major, and I do mean major, major loving convenience. E-level was primarily attained by completing your goals (completing your prescribed number of pages each day) and this task was made infinitely easier by being able to go score whenever you needed to.

This, combined with the use of isolation and physical punishment against people who misbehave, seems very reminiscent of prisons and mental institutions. It's a strange kind of irony that white evangelicals built a prison-like environment for their own children while pushing for the mass incarceration of black people.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 20:50

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

GoluboiOgon posted:

This, combined with the use of isolation and physical punishment against people who misbehave, seems very reminiscent of prisons and mental institutions. It's a strange kind of irony that white evangelicals built a prison-like environment for their own children while pushing for the mass incarceration of black people.

if its good enough for their kids clearly its good enough for those people

# ? Oct 18, 2017 21:48

Uncle Wemus: Mar 4, 2004

What happened to the gibbis thread

# ? Oct 18, 2017 22:02

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Here is an insider account of working conditions in A.C.E. from a European Whistleblower:

(Pretend the entire thing is bolded)

quote:

Turnover of staff is extremely high at the company. Mr Roderick doesn�t like anyone with a different opinion to him and if you don�t comply you will be sacked. This sacking may be disguised as resignation in some form or other. In my case I received a letter thanking me for a fictitious resignation during a nervous breakdown and marriage crisis. In the past I have seen people head hunted from all over the UK and indeed the world. They moved to Swindon with their family and then get promptly dropped at the will of Arthur Roderick. He fills his board room with people who will agree with him and if they don�t they get pushed.

Whilst I was there, one person was sacked for a supposedly gay relationship, another we were told wanted to go back to school, which was a total fabrication, another general manager was told his position was redundant and then another person was employed, a young boy pushed for getting together with a non-Christian whom he later married, the list is endless. Probably one of the worse cases was that of Alastair Kirk whom Arthur groomed and mentored to take the CEO position. He was given the job as well as Home-school Manager at a very young age without training or experience. This of course was never going to work and he and his long serving, loyal mother were both pushed out. No one speaks about what happened to them. They are afraid of being kicked out of the local Christian community as I have been. They are also told it is ungodly and not Christian like to criticise.

Meanwhile, in appointing a new CEO, they ignored employment law:

I absolutely pray that the Border Agency will investigate overseas appointees to CEE. Their current CEO was allowed immigration to work and live in the UK. The agency was told the position was advertised in the UK and no one qualified in this specialist area could be found. This is not true. There were many suitable applicants but the directors did not even read the CVS they submitted. This was because Arthur Roderick had wanted this particular person. The position was indeed advertised, but the company had no intention of employing any such applicant. Their employment of overseas students for no salary was stopped and a couple of them deported.

[Arthur Roderick] also likes women managers, as they can be kept to rule with twisted scripture and repressed. In some cases I was paid much less than others even though I was a senior management because my husband earned enough to keep me. The hours were long and thankless. It was normality for me to be called at 10pm to complete a PowerPoint or some such presentation for the next morning. Everyone wanted to please Arthur and seemed to vie for his attention. Let me tell you though if you cross him or don�t fulfil his requests you are soon history. The working conditions were bleak at best and illegal at worse. I was often called into directors meetings to be ticked off like a schoolchild no matter how hard I worked. Arthur has this knack of placing his hopes in daft places, whilst others pick up the work but get no credit for it. Usually this was the incompetent men he put over the women managers who did the real work. The atmosphere is far from Christian let me tell you.

Arthur was also my pastor and directly through his interference I lost my marriage, home, �friends� and self-esteem. I was left destitute, had a terrible nervous breakdown and was sent to Coventry� as well as the lies spread defaming my character by this lovely Christian group. At the same time, being told I was loved. They almost sent my son with me. How muddled was my mind. This control freak mind-set became norm to me and I have suffered terribly since leaving. Normally a confident person, I was left a nervous wreck, on benefits with a social worker. This brain washing and control is not dissimilar to the control in its schools. I liken my experience as to being expelled from a cult. There are one or two saints who privately support me. Only one is willingly to publically stand with me just now and she was sacked too.

Curriculum development is by unqualified and incompetent staff:

One of my thankless tasks there was to correct curriculum mistakes in the UK PACEs and report mistakes to the US of errors in the American PACEs. UK ones would be corrected, but then mixed in with the older incorrect ones in the warehouse causing further confusion and muddle. American PACEs were reported often, but we knew they wouldn�t be altered until after the massive print run was sold, maybe years on if ever. Many home school calls resulted from this confusion. Help was available from a rather confusing TEACH Principal, Colin Slater or a very part time advisor, Lionel Boulton. The TEACH Administrator Felicity Devine spent hours consoling customers complaints and queries.

If a complaint is ever held, Arthur�s reply would be God knows� He knows we are doing our best. Actually, no you are not. Untrained and teenage staff is rife. Young people do very adult jobs with no proper training, thanks or salary. Discontent is rife. Everyone blames each other. Christian you may ask?

Copyright law has been broken in some PACEs:

The curriculum development often is done by unpaid or low paid writers who all squabble with each other. Facts are often wrong and the PACE gets laid out and has to be redone OFTEN, poor layout lady�aka me. When I first arrived in the curriculum department, the young men developers (ex-students) were pinching copyrighted images off Google and rubbing out the copyright symbol! This resulted in a fuss made by me, a sacking and some dumped PACEs which actually got sold in the muddle anyway! The curriculum department was at that time ran by a nineteen year old who was later pushed out. All the early development at CEE was a joke until one day I contacted Brenda Lewis then a head teacher and now a director too. She improved things immensely, as did the formation of ICCE International. The Australia team particularly combined with Brenda�s hard work is improving things.

Conditions in home schools are frequently poor:

A good home school educator on TEACH [CEE's home schooling plan, based on ACE] needs to supplement their child�s education with debate, other material and trips out. Their children seem quite well socialised. These are not the majority. Often I took calls from tearful mothers and angry fathers that just could not do the work with the children. Many a time on a call, there would be the sound of screaming children, a tearful mum struggling with maths or an incorrect PACE situation and dad shouting in the background.

Opposing views are crushed:

The schools are run similar to CEE offices under the disillusionment of a Godly love way of training which is often cruel. The kids have to set their own goals and pace themselves. Outward appearance is of love. The children believe this is the way God wants them taught etc. It is actually a curriculum designed to further the views of the company and like-minded parents.One ex home school parent recently stated to me in an email, that she believes that the company are inciting hatred with their open anti-gay ramblings, sexual discrimination and twisted scripture. She told me that they are a money making, inferior incompetent group that should be banned from operating.

I would say there is no room for free a thinker in this system which gives a narrow view of the world. Their way is the only their way, fact black and white. If you don�t apply you are either ground down or cast out. The curriculum is all Biblical no matter what the subject. Mastery learning is used for this indoctrination which is probably why it attracted my ex-husband. Mastery learning is not the brain child of ACE. Many modern computer games use a form of mastery learning. Think of the Mario games or Hungry Birds AP for example. You can�t go to the next level until you master the current one. This is how ACE works. Trouble is the content reads like brain washing rather than training your child.

# ? Oct 18, 2017 22:40

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

So I know Betsy DeVos supports this stuff, but could you help provide some really clear links or series of links to that that I can refer to when the topic of her comes up?

# ? Oct 18, 2017 23:13

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

the kids should be reading Marx instead, that would make this all better

# ? Oct 18, 2017 23:38

Ruzihm: Aug 11, 2010; Group up and push mid, proletariat!

Taintrunner posted:

the kids should be reading Marx instead, that would make this all better

# ? Oct 19, 2017 01:10

Duckbox: Sep 7, 2007

Taintrunner posted:

the kids should be reading Marx instead, that would make this all better

Hell, just let them read the Bible themselves without anyone there to tell them what it's really saying and they probably couldn't turn out any worse.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 02:48

Notorious R.I.M.: Jan 27, 2004; up to my ass in alligators

holy poo poo this thread that program jesus gently caress.

now i get where so many of these god bots come from

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:06

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

When I was in junior high, I was minding my own business alone at a lunch table when two white boys walked up to me and started pestering me about my skin color. I was used to it because I was literally the only WoC at my school so I just ignored them. After throwing my lunch in the trash, one boy told me "You know your skin is that color because you were born anally and not vaginally right? All 'colored' people are. I hope that's nice to know!" and walked away.

Being an insecure girl I thought he was telling the truth. I was always ashamed of my skin color for years after. I wasn't ever taught about why people have different skin tones because of my backwater hometown where my family members were literally the only non-white people. They didn't cover anything but "God is great" in every class, including math.

My parents saved up enough money and I got grades good enough to send me to a university in New York. I've met some great people here, but the other day in a discussion group I talked about how I thought PoC were made and that we don't need to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Immediately the class erupted into laughter, including the professor. Then they realized I sincerely thought that way. I'm 22. I never learned better, and I just announced to a class that I was born from a woman's anus. They all got really quiet and the professor mentioned that "things don't work that way" without telling me any more. After class he pulled me aside and told me I was lied to.

I'm so loving humiliated and scared. I don't think I can go back to school. I feel stupid and unwanted and now my classmates are probably going to call me the butthole girl. I need a bottle of wine and preferably some strong painkillers so I can medicinally addle myself to the point where this was all a dream. gently caress this so much. This is what racism and the patriarchy do to us.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:22

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

Plutonis posted:

When I was in junior high, I was minding my own business alone at a lunch table when two white boys walked up to me and started pestering me about my skin color. I was used to it because I was literally the only WoC at my school so I just ignored them. After throwing my lunch in the trash, one boy told me "You know your skin is that color because you were born anally and not vaginally right? All 'colored' people are. I hope that's nice to know!" and walked away.

Being an insecure girl I thought he was telling the truth. I was always ashamed of my skin color for years after. I wasn't ever taught about why people have different skin tones because of my backwater hometown where my family members were literally the only non-white people. They didn't cover anything but "God is great" in every class, including math.

My parents saved up enough money and I got grades good enough to send me to a university in New York. I've met some great people here, but the other day in a discussion group I talked about how I thought PoC were made and that we don't need to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Immediately the class erupted into laughter, including the professor. Then they realized I sincerely thought that way. I'm 22. I never learned better, and I just announced to a class that I was born from a woman's anus. They all got really quiet and the professor mentioned that "things don't work that way" without telling me any more. After class he pulled me aside and told me I was lied to.

I'm so loving humiliated and scared. I don't think I can go back to school. I feel stupid and unwanted and now my classmates are probably going to call me the butthole girl. I need a bottle of wine and preferably some strong painkillers so I can medicinally addle myself to the point where this was all a dream. gently caress this so much. This is what racism and the patriarchy do to us.

Jesus. I'm sorry.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:50

Iron Prince: Aug 28, 2005; Buglord

I got kicked over here from GBS, but holy poo poo is this insane.

I went to a Christian school in Texas for K-12 and everyting I experienced was nothing like this.

This really is a trip for me. Obviously, all our books had a religious slant to them, but I remember there being detailed studies and tests about evolution that ended with the caveat �Eh, maybe God designed this mechanism?� then the next chapter would be over young earth type stuff with the line �Huh, God could have done it this way too!�

I didn�t that stuff like this ACE bullshit existed. I know that�s naive, especially coming from a religious education background. But drat it�s worse than I can ever imagine.

I�m gonna track this thread because I would like to know more.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:52

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

Plutonis posted:

When I was in junior high, I was minding my own business alone at a lunch table when two white boys walked up to me and started pestering me about my skin color. I was used to it because I was literally the only WoC at my school so I just ignored them. After throwing my lunch in the trash, one boy told me "You know your skin is that color because you were born anally and not vaginally right? All 'colored' people are. I hope that's nice to know!" and walked away.

Being an insecure girl I thought he was telling the truth. I was always ashamed of my skin color for years after. I wasn't ever taught about why people have different skin tones because of my backwater hometown where my family members were literally the only non-white people. They didn't cover anything but "God is great" in every class, including math.

My parents saved up enough money and I got grades good enough to send me to a university in New York. I've met some great people here, but the other day in a discussion group I talked about how I thought PoC were made and that we don't need to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Immediately the class erupted into laughter, including the professor. Then they realized I sincerely thought that way. I'm 22. I never learned better, and I just announced to a class that I was born from a woman's anus. They all got really quiet and the professor mentioned that "things don't work that way" without telling me any more. After class he pulled me aside and told me I was lied to.

I'm so loving humiliated and scared. I don't think I can go back to school. I feel stupid and unwanted and now my classmates are probably going to call me the butthole girl. I need a bottle of wine and preferably some strong painkillers so I can medicinally addle myself to the point where this was all a dream. gently caress this so much. This is what racism and the patriarchy do to us.

God do I ever know that gutwrenching shame- that sense of complete devaluation of your person as you suddenly realize how you are perceived from others and how badly you have been misled. It never truly stops hurting but....... it does get easier over time. (I would strongly recommend getting in touch with your school counselor and talking about that incident. Trying to bury that shame will eat you alive inside.)

Its not your fault, its not your goddamn fault. I know how little that loving means and how deep that red-hot knife in your gut is twisting right now, but all I can do is tell you that its not your goddamn fault. It hurts like loving all fury and it shatters your hopes for the future but its not your loving fault and you gotta find a way to survive. Don't let the fuckers win, you are a good person and you can overcome this.

Goddamnit its not your fault.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:52

RatEarth: Aug 7, 2017; I didn't say that.
but it'd be funny if I did

PetraCore posted:

So I know Betsy DeVos supports this stuff, but could you help provide some really clear links or series of links to that that I can refer to when the topic of her comes up?

A bit earlier in the thread they talk about DeVos's connections to the CNP, though she is not a member, and how the CNP has made a big pro-A.C.E. push.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:53

Ruzihm: Aug 11, 2010; Group up and push mid, proletariat!

Plutonis posted:

When I was in junior high, I was minding my own business alone at a lunch table when two white boys walked up to me and started pestering me about my skin color. I was used to it because I was literally the only WoC at my school so I just ignored them. After throwing my lunch in the trash, one boy told me "You know your skin is that color because you were born anally and not vaginally right? All 'colored' people are. I hope that's nice to know!" and walked away.

Being an insecure girl I thought he was telling the truth. I was always ashamed of my skin color for years after. I wasn't ever taught about why people have different skin tones because of my backwater hometown where my family members were literally the only non-white people. They didn't cover anything but "God is great" in every class, including math.

My parents saved up enough money and I got grades good enough to send me to a university in New York. I've met some great people here, but the other day in a discussion group I talked about how I thought PoC were made and that we don't need to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Immediately the class erupted into laughter, including the professor. Then they realized I sincerely thought that way. I'm 22. I never learned better, and I just announced to a class that I was born from a woman's anus. They all got really quiet and the professor mentioned that "things don't work that way" without telling me any more. After class he pulled me aside and told me I was lied to.

I'm so loving humiliated and scared. I don't think I can go back to school. I feel stupid and unwanted and now my classmates are probably going to call me the butthole girl. I need a bottle of wine and preferably some strong painkillers so I can medicinally addle myself to the point where this was all a dream. gently caress this so much. This is what racism and the patriarchy do to us.

Is this a quote or is this you speaking? Either way, drat I'm sorry that happened. It's not your/their fault.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 04:55

ScrubLeague: Feb 11, 2007; Nap Ghost

I'm pretty sure I almost ended up in an ACE homeschool commune when I was like 10. Thank god it was probably too expensive.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 05:14

General Dog: Apr 26, 2008; Everybody's working for the weekend

Plutonis posted:

When I was in junior high, I was minding my own business alone at a lunch table when two white boys walked up to me and started pestering me about my skin color. I was used to it because I was literally the only WoC at my school so I just ignored them. After throwing my lunch in the trash, one boy told me "You know your skin is that color because you were born anally and not vaginally right? All 'colored' people are. I hope that's nice to know!" and walked away.

Being an insecure girl I thought he was telling the truth. I was always ashamed of my skin color for years after. I wasn't ever taught about why people have different skin tones because of my backwater hometown where my family members were literally the only non-white people. They didn't cover anything but "God is great" in every class, including math.

My parents saved up enough money and I got grades good enough to send me to a university in New York. I've met some great people here, but the other day in a discussion group I talked about how I thought PoC were made and that we don't need to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Immediately the class erupted into laughter, including the professor. Then they realized I sincerely thought that way. I'm 22. I never learned better, and I just announced to a class that I was born from a woman's anus. They all got really quiet and the professor mentioned that "things don't work that way" without telling me any more. After class he pulled me aside and told me I was lied to.

I'm so loving humiliated and scared. I don't think I can go back to school. I feel stupid and unwanted and now my classmates are probably going to call me the butthole girl. I need a bottle of wine and preferably some strong painkillers so I can medicinally addle myself to the point where this was all a dream. gently caress this so much. This is what racism and the patriarchy do to us.

This is a copy/paste by the way you goddammed morons

# ? Oct 19, 2017 05:31

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# ? May 5, 2024 08:21

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Ruzihm posted:

Is this a quote or is this you speaking? Either way, drat I'm sorry that happened. It's not your/their fault.

It's a quote and actually it's true but only for Plutonis.

# ? Oct 19, 2017 05:31

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Republicans, Racism, and the ritual abuse of children: The ABC's of A.C.E.

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