Sunday, March 05, 2006
Accelerated Christian Education
Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) is an organization that makes materials for home schoolers and private schools to use. They must be doing quite well at it because they have a facility in Texas worth $20 million (and they have more facilities in Florida, where their headquarters is). I found out about them in an article from the Dallas Morning News (hat tip to this blog).
A mom who sent her son to a private school contacted the author of the Dallas Morning News article:
After reading that, I'm sure you can guess what their position on evolution is:
I've heard some members of the Christian community complain that faith is under attack in colleges and universities. People who use ACE materials shouldn't be surprised if their kids' faith is hurt when they go to college. It won't be due to any sort of attack from their professors, it will be because the ACE materials provided them with such a weak foundation for their faith. I think that some parents like that are motivated by a desire to protect their kids from what they view as a corrupting influence in the non-Christian world – they want to shield their kids' faith (any readers should feel free to chime in with their views). I can appreciate that motivation without sharing it. However, I don't see how you can protect your kids by providing them with inaccurate information about the world. You'll just leave them unprepared to deal with the larger world.
A mom who sent her son to a private school contacted the author of the Dallas Morning News article:
A concerned mom called my attention to the politically loaded lessons. She was troubled by some of the Texas history worksheets her son was bringing home.
That's where he had learned the definitions of liberal ("referring to philosophy not supported by Scripture") and conservative ("dedicated to the preserving of Scriptural principles").
The mom said she sent him to a small Christian school for more personal attention. But she didn't know that would mean such lopsided political ideology.
After reading that, I'm sure you can guess what their position on evolution is:
The textbook goes on to set up a false choice between evolution and God. "Both cannot be right. Is it logical to trust Darwin or God? It is odd that whenever given the choice of accepting the Bible or some man-written book, the liberals always reject the Bible and accept the other book."
I've heard some members of the Christian community complain that faith is under attack in colleges and universities. People who use ACE materials shouldn't be surprised if their kids' faith is hurt when they go to college. It won't be due to any sort of attack from their professors, it will be because the ACE materials provided them with such a weak foundation for their faith. I think that some parents like that are motivated by a desire to protect their kids from what they view as a corrupting influence in the non-Christian world – they want to shield their kids' faith (any readers should feel free to chime in with their views). I can appreciate that motivation without sharing it. However, I don't see how you can protect your kids by providing them with inaccurate information about the world. You'll just leave them unprepared to deal with the larger world.
