Well, that was quick.

For those not playing along, last Friday I posted an open letter to Christian Education Europe. Arthur Roderick replied almost by way of post.

Here’s his letter (click to enlarge).

UPDATE: On the advice of the author of jesusandmo.net, I have taken down Arthur Roderick’s letter. I was working on the assumption that, since I told him I would be posting my letter online, he would realise that I would post his, too. It occurs to me that this is not a watertight defence. Since it’s illegal to publish private letters without permission, I am trying to get his express consent. I apologise that the rest of this post makes much less sense without it. I will post an extra blog tomorrow to compensate for your undoubted misery.

In the meantime, since the author was so kind as to warn me that I was breaking the law, why don’t you check out one of his highly amusing (and highly relevant) comics:

I will reply, as I am grateful that Mr. Roderick took the time to reply to me at all, but it’s not a heartening response. I find it hard to engage with someone who provides anecdotes in response to criticisms of a science curriculum (By the way, if anybody out there truly loves me, buy me a T-shirt that says “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data’”).

By my count, seven of the sentences in that letter actually respond to points I raised, and the rest is flannel.

I particularly object to the argument about his son being deprived of oxygen at birth. I’m very sad to hear this; I did not know. It is not of any relevance to my case, though, and rebutting that argument is difficult without looking like a heartless bastard.

But I’m not in the business of making myself popular with Creationists, so here goes.

Perhaps in an individual’s case, asking why a child is deprived of oxygen is futile. But it’s not futile in the case of science, or in the case of the hospital. Doctors should absolutely ask why the child is deprived of oxygen, to stop it from happening again. Can we make an advancement in medicine as a result of this? Is there an improvement in hospital procedure that would stop it happening again? Does someone need to be fired for negligence?

It’s the same in education. I am not, as Mr. Roderick to suggest, wallowing in misery about my past. I am happier than I have been at any point in my life before now. I am studying education because I enjoy it. I have seen a systematic failure of the educational process, and I want to see it fixed, for the good of future children.

Besides which, I didn’t ask for an explanation of what “happened to me.” I asked for an explanation of why ACE have been teaching misinformation and blatant falsehoods for decades, when the arguments they presented have never been valid, and when the foundation for these falsehoods is a corruption of the scientific method. The response? “ACE has no problem with the scientific method.” No argument. Just an asserted denial, and the matter is dropped.

As for my mother, well, since you ask, she is a hero. She has shown phenomenal strength of character and admitted that she was wrong. She has taken responsibility for the decision to send me to that school, and posted a comment on this very blog, saying:

“As a recovering fundamentalist myself, I never cease to be horrified at the information given in this blog, even though Jonny and I have discussed these matters often and in depth. I want it on record that I bitterly regret sending Jonny to an ACE school (the reasons for which are complex) and reject its teaching entirely. Jonny has done a magnificent job processing the experience and if this blog helps to expose the system and prevent what he suffered happening to other children, then it is a job well done.”

That’s a shining example compared with the intellectual cowardice of the providers of Accelerated Christian Education, who have never once provided meaningful responses to valid criticisms of their curriculum. I suspect this is because they have none. When you’ve sacrificed for several decades to make something happen, you’re probably not going to be in a rush to admit that what you achieved might have been harmful.

I have the McDowell book he mentions out of the library at the moment, as it happens. It would be better titled Evidence That Demands a Refund.

Related posts:

• Accelerated Christian Education on BBC Radio 4
• Why Fundamentalism Is Not Faith
• How the Loch Ness Monster Disproves Evolution

For a few months now I have been in contact with a former employee of Christian Education Europe, the UK arm of Accelerated Christian Education. Christine Gregg was fired from CEE following a long period of being thoroughly taken advantage of. She is now keen to expose the inner workings of the company, in particular its abuse of staff, in-fighting, and breach of employment law. Bring it on.

Christine has finally published a detailed expose of Christian Education Europe, and it’s not pretty. The author has been in correspondence with me for a while. She has written to me that, although she knows many damning things about CEE, she was determined only to include things she could prove in this article. I’m confident this information is legit. You should go and read the whole thing.   I’ve noticed, though, that statistically, my readers don’t click on links in anything like the volumes you read my posts (why is that?), so here are the highlights:

CEE broke the law to employ and sack staff

She claims that staff who cross Arthur Roderick have been fired, and this has been made to look like a resignation.

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.

I also pray UCAS will get on board to stop their illegal practises. It is too late for me to report them now as a year has passed. Let’s just hope someone else will be brave enough to stand up and speak out, but I won’t hold my breath. I will however still send a report to ACAS to aid future mis dealings.

Staff are subjected to unethical treatment

[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.

Read the rest here.

Follow Christine Gregg on twitter.

This is a good time. A lot of people are coming together to stand against this unethical organisation, with former students, parents, and staff all speaking out.

Related posts:

• The best email ever (a former ACE home school teacher speaks out)
• A reverence for received knowledge (a former ACE student speaks out)

Well, that was quick.

For those not playing along, last Friday I posted an open letter to Christian Education Europe. Arthur Roderick replied almost by way of post.

Here’s his letter (click to enlarge).

UPDATE: On the advice of the author of jesusandmo.net, I have taken down Arthur Roderick’s letter. I was working on the assumption that, since I told him I would be posting my letter online, he would realise that I would post his, too. It occurs to me that this is not a watertight defence. Since it’s illegal to publish private letters without permission, I am trying to get his express consent. I apologise that the rest of this post makes much less sense without it. I will post an extra blog tomorrow to compensate for your undoubted misery.

In the meantime, since the author was so kind as to warn me that I was breaking the law, why don’t you check out one of his highly amusing (and highly relevant) comics:

I will reply, as I am grateful that Mr. Roderick took the time to reply to me at all, but it’s not a heartening response. I find it hard to engage with someone who provides anecdotes in response to criticisms of a science curriculum (By the way, if anybody out there truly loves me, buy me a T-shirt that says “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data'”).

By my count, seven of the sentences in that letter actually respond to points I raised, and the rest is flannel.

I particularly object to the argument about his son being deprived of oxygen at birth. I’m very sad to hear this; I did not know. It is not of any relevance to my case, though, and rebutting that argument is difficult without looking like a heartless bastard.

But I’m not in the business of making myself popular with Creationists, so here goes.

Perhaps in an individual’s case, asking why a child is deprived of oxygen is futile. But it’s not futile in the case of science, or in the case of the hospital. Doctors should absolutely ask why the child is deprived of oxygen, to stop it from happening again. Can we make an advancement in medicine as a result of this? Is there an improvement in hospital procedure that would stop it happening again? Does someone need to be fired for negligence?

It’s the same in education. I am not, as Mr. Roderick to suggest, wallowing in misery about my past. I am happier than I have been at any point in my life before now. I am studying education because I enjoy it. I have seen a systematic failure of the educational process, and I want to see it fixed, for the good of future children.

Besides which, I didn’t ask for an explanation of what “happened to me.” I asked for an explanation of why ACE have been teaching misinformation and blatant falsehoods for decades, when the arguments they presented have never been valid, and when the foundation for these falsehoods is a corruption of the scientific method. The response? “ACE has no problem with the scientific method.” No argument. Just an asserted denial, and the matter is dropped.

As for my mother, well, since you ask, she is a hero. She has shown phenomenal strength of character and admitted that she was wrong. She has taken responsibility for the decision to send me to that school, and posted a comment on this very blog, saying:

“As a recovering fundamentalist myself, I never cease to be horrified at the information given in this blog, even though Jonny and I have discussed these matters often and in depth. I want it on record that I bitterly regret sending Jonny to an ACE school (the reasons for which are complex) and reject its teaching entirely. Jonny has done a magnificent job processing the experience and if this blog helps to expose the system and prevent what he suffered happening to other children, then it is a job well done.”

That’s a shining example compared with the intellectual cowardice of the providers of Accelerated Christian Education, who have never once provided meaningful responses to valid criticisms of their curriculum. I suspect this is because they have none. When you’ve sacrificed for several decades to make something happen, you’re probably not going to be in a rush to admit that what you achieved might have been harmful.

I have the McDowell book he mentions out of the library at the moment, as it happens. It would be better titled Evidence That Demands a Refund.

Related posts:

• Accelerated Christian Education on BBC Radio 4
• Why Fundamentalism Is Not Faith
• How the Loch Ness Monster Disproves Evolution

For a few months now I have been in contact with a former employee of Christian Education Europe, the UK arm of Accelerated Christian Education. Christine Gregg was fired from CEE following a long period of being thoroughly taken advantage of. She is now keen to expose the inner workings of the company, in particular its abuse of staff, in-fighting, and breach of employment law. Bring it on.

Christine has finally published a detailed expose of Christian Education Europe, and it’s not pretty. The author has been in correspondence with me for a while. She has written to me that, although she knows many damning things about CEE, she was determined only to include things she could prove in this article. I’m confident this information is legit. You should go and read the whole thing.   I’ve noticed, though, that statistically, my readers don’t click on links in anything like the volumes you read my posts (why is that?), so here are the highlights:

CEE broke the law to employ and sack staff

She claims that staff who cross Arthur Roderick have been fired, and this has been made to look like a resignation.

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.

I also pray UCAS will get on board to stop their illegal practises. It is too late for me to report them now as a year has passed. Let’s just hope someone else will be brave enough to stand up and speak out, but I won’t hold my breath. I will however still send a report to ACAS to aid future mis dealings.

Staff are subjected to unethical treatment

[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.

Read the rest here.

Follow Christine Gregg on twitter.

This is a good time. A lot of people are coming together to stand against this unethical organisation, with former students, parents, and staff all speaking out.

Related posts:

• The best email ever (a former ACE home school teacher speaks out)
• A reverence for received knowledge (a former ACE student speaks out)

It’s always nice to be talked about. It’s particularly lovely when you’ve been campaigning against an organisation for two years and their public strategy has been to pretend nothing is happening. Well, mostly anyway.

But now Christian Education Europe’s Arthur Roderick has sent an email to CEE’s member schools discussing how they intend to deal with the menace that I present. It’s a fun read. Of course, Arthur doesn’t name me or link to any of the associated media coverage in his email. I presume he’d rather his customers didn’t read my blog. I, on the other hand, am all about the debate. I just think this is a conversation that needs to be had in public (not least because it’s one Arthur and other ACE teachers refused to have with me in private).

In that spirit, you should also check out ace-education.co.uk, a new blog by Christine Bradshaw which attempts to debunk many claims I’ve made about ACE (and quite a few I haven’t). Replies to posts like these will come soon. I realise that my linking to them will probably triple the number of people who see them, but like I said, I welcome the debate. Something CEE does not, as I will explain shortly.

Here’s Arthur’s letter. Since it’s online at a publicly available link, I have taken the liberty of reproducing it below. I know CEE are some of my most avid readers, so if they object, no doubt I will hear about it soon and have to replace the letter with a Jesus & Mo cartoon again. After the letter, I’ll tell you about some of my recent correspondence with Arthur and other people.

Dear Christian Educator,

This letter comes with awareness that we all need to encourage one another and stand together, in what are perilous times as far as Truth is concerned.  There have been significant criticisms and scurrilous statements about the ACE programme in the social media, with interviews on the BBC, including an opportunity to present our case on the ‘Newsnight’ programme. This generated a flurry of activity in regional newspapers and even prompted two written questions in parliament. The Trojan Horse affair relating to Islamic schools spilled over to ACE, as we apparently are the potential Christian ‘Extremists’.
Taking advantage of this has been a former disaffected student who spent less than three years in an ACE school fifteen years ago and has openly campaigned in a continuing vendetta against what he considers “fundamentalist and damaging educational practice.” This opposition, both derogatory and inflammatory and birthed in childhood difficulties, appears to be the motivation for his thesis against ACE. May we all heed what the scriptures say in Hebrews 12:15:

“… looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many are defiled.”

Because now there is involvement and comment from the British Humanist Association and the TUC LGBT conference, we believe it is the time to tell you, our customers, what actions we are taking. We have previously felt it best to get on with the job and not be distracted, but now the level of misinformation has called for some actions.

We examine ourselves, our hearts and actions to see if there are things to rectify. As there is a demand for a public apology from me, the founder of CEE, on the internet, let me say I have nothing to apologise for in distributing this amazing curriculum with its emphasis on godly character. I replied privately to this gentleman’s request over two years ago.
So here are some of the things we are doing and we need prayer for each of them:

1. We are preparing DVD presentations of student outcomes by both school and home-school students. Here the results will speak for themselves.
2. We have already commenced looking for problem facts or ambiguities in the PACEs that may best be changed. With over 2000 work books it is so wonderful that there have been very few queries.  
3. Nigel Steele and I have already contacted and visited other organisations including Christian Concern and C.M.I. and the Family Education Trust. We are seeking advice on how to proceed with the media realm and the political networks. This week Thursday, 17^th July, some of us are meeting a member of the House of Lords and a Christian lawyer. We have already had time with Paul Diamond, a Christian barrister.
4. We will be sending suggested letters and approaches that you may find helpful if you are engaging with the media.  At the moment, if you have a press enquiry we suggest that you ask for the question in writing and you respond in writing.
5. Over the summer thought will be given to website apologetics for our cause and a regular blog that I will involve in.
6. In our best ever attended Home-school Conference at Cefn Lea  last week, parents raised the value of a day of prayer and fasting and Thursday 17^th July was suggested.  
7. Next week a televised debate will take place on Revelation T V with a humanist leader. Pray for me as I am proposing that “God is not Dead.”

Trust the above motivates us to ask of God for empowerment and enabling for these difficult days. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Victor.

Yours by his grace,

Arthur Roderick
Education and Training Manager

In response, I sent the following email to Arthur Roderick:

Dear Arthur,

Your email to the schools about the recent ACE media coverage has been forwarded to me. Just to say that if there are any instances where I have relied on factual inaccuracies in my criticism of ACE, feel free to make me aware of them. I will be glad to rectify any misinformation.

Further, if any of my quotations from the PACEs are, in your view, taken out of context, please feel free to point these out and (if it is not obvious) explain how the added context refutes my understanding of the material.

Jonny

Then I realised I’d forgotten something. I recently had an exchange on Twitter with Premier Christian Radio’s Justin Brierley, and he showed an interest in hosting a debate between me and Arthur (or some other CEE representative):

So I emailed Arthur again:

Dear Arthur,

Sorry, there was something else I meant to mention in my previous email.

I’m aware that recent media coverage has been biased in favour of the anti-ACE viewpoint. Critics of ACE have been given more column inches and airtime than proponents, and critics have usually set the agenda. On Premier Christian Radio, there is a programme called Unbelievable, hosted by Justin Brierley, which specialises in debates. Justin has already expressed interest in having me on air to debate ACE. This is a show with a predominantly Christian audience, with a Christian host, on a Christian network.

I invite you (or anyone you nominate), to debate me on ACE. We could make sure the debate question is framed in such a way that the pro-ACE motion does not begin on the back foot. There would be time to explain and explore ACE in detail, and for you to rebut any claims I make. This seems the fairest and best way to have this conversation. What do you say?

All the best,

Jonny

Arthur’s reply, predictably, did not address my first email at all, but it did say:

No, I would not entertain the idea of a debate with you because of your inappropriate and false representations about people and your vendetta.

This does not make any sense. If I have made false representations about people, and if I have a vendetta, a public debate would be the best way to expose me. If I am lying, it would be easy to destroy me in a debate. I emailed Arthur, again requesting that he detail any false representations I’ve made and correct them. This has not to date received a reply. I’ve repeated my request for a debate to CEE’s Greg Hibbins, and I await the response.

Related posts:

• An open letter to Christian Education Europe
• Christian Education Europe responds!
• Christian educators respond to criticism

Over at ace-education.co.uk, there’s a post entitled “10 Questions for Jonny Scaramana“. Here are my answers.

Jonny Scaramanga is infamous for his anti ACE blogs. If you Google his name then you will find his Leaving Fundamentalism site and lots more info. I am responding to some of the false information given to the media ATM.

Before we get going then, a question of my own: Please could you detail this false information? It would be useful for all sides, I think, to correct any misinformation that’s floating around. Until now, I’ve seen accusations of falsehoods flying around, but a shortage of specifics.

I invite Jonny to answer the following questions. I will post his response if any.

Q. It is stated on many blog sites and within the press that you went to an ACE school until you were 14. This would imply that you spent many years in the system. Is it true then that you only actually spent two school years at Victory School Bath?

I’ve always been consistent in reporting how long I attended Victory. In my open letter to CEE two years ago, I said I was there from 1996 to 1999. In his recent letter, Arthur Roderick interpreted this as “less than three years” which seems to have been reinterpreted here as “two school years”. In fact, I arrived at Victory in the spring term of 1996, in my last term of Year 6 (final year of primary school). I was then there for three full school years: 96-97, 97-98, and 98-99. I started the 99-00 school year, but my parents removed me halfway through the Autumn term of 1999. So I was there from April or May 1996 until October 1999—three years and at least five months.

I also attended Victory preschool in 1988/1989. So that makes a total of 4 ½ years.

No one has yet explained to me what it is that I would understand about ACE had I attended for 12 or 13 years that I was unable to glean in four. I suspect the real answer is that I would have been inculcated with more Christian character, so now I wouldn’t be asking these difficult questions.

Q. Why do you feel qualified to run this hate campaign?

Well isn’t this the loaded question! Coming next: “When did you stop beating your wife?”

Here are some relevant things about me:

• I have completed ACE monitor (staff) training (Autumn term 1998), scoring 100% on all eight tests.
• When I left my ACE school, I had completed all the credits required for NCSC Level 1 (now called ICCE General Certificate) in every subject except maths, where I was still about six PACEs away from completion. This was claimed to be the equivalent of GCSEs at the time. I then went to a mainstream school and did GCSEs. I think I might be the only person to have done this, so the only person that can make a direct comparison from a student’s point of view.
• I have a PG Cert Ed teaching qualification.
• I have taught teaching placements to KS4 and KS5 students, and been a permanent tutor to students on Level 3 and Level 4 courses.
• I’m currently doing a PhD looking at student experiences of Accelerated Christian Education.
• As part of this PhD, I’ve done a comprehensive literature review. If it’s been written about ACE and it still exists, I’ve almost certainly read it.

What qualifications would you expect someone to have that I don’t?

Q. Why do you personalise your campaign rather than just critique the system?

I don’t. I guess you are referring to my critiques of Brenda Lewis and Pieter Van Rooyen. This is not making it personal. If an individual has a public role (say, acting as a representative of a school or curriculum), it is not personal to criticise their actions in their professional capacity. It would be making it personal if I were to attack them for their personal appearance, or to criticise members of their families, or publish private information about them. I haven’t done any of those things.

Here’s a relevant comparison: When engaging in a political debate, it is normal to critique the words and actions of specific candidates, rather than just their party. For example, over at the Channel 4 blog Fact Check (and dozens of others like it on the net), the researchers frequently refer to specific claims made by individual politicians and conclude that their statements have been false or misleading, much as I did with Brenda Lewis. That’s not making it personal. Whereas you only have to search Twitter for comments mentioning David Cameron or Ed Miliband to find instances of people who have made it personal.

Q. Do you actually care about the students that you think you are campaigning for? Do you not believe in freedom of choice?

I don’t see how the second question is related to the first, but OK. Of course I care about the students I’m campaigning for. What other motivation could I have for doing this? I’ve earned a small amount from this campaign by writing for places like the Guardian, New Statesman, New Humanist, but this pales in comparison to what it’s cost me in lost earnings (because I stopped working to do my PhD) and expenses (because PhDs involve buying many books).

If you think the second question relates to the first, presumably your suggestion is that these students want to go to these schools, and so by campaigning against them I am restricting these children’s freedom of choice. I dispute this. To make an informed choice, you have to have good information, and ACE schools deprive children of the knowledge they need to make an well-reasoned decision. It’s a system of indoctrination, and indoctrinated individuals are not equipped to choose.

I am defending the students’ choice. I am arguing that they ought not to be subjected to indoctrination, so that they are able to reach their own conclusions later on. I’m also arguing that they shouldn’t be sent to schools which don’t offer formally recognised qualifications, or schools that use methods of instruction that are based on outdated behaviourist ideas. Children deserve the best education possible, and ACE is not it.

ACE, on the other hand, is defending the parents’ choice. And I don’t think it’s moral for parents to deliberately shield their children from current scientific knowledge, or to decide on their children’s behalf what religion they will follow. Religion is a matter of personal faith and conscience, and making children recite pledges to Jesus and the Bible every day robs them of that choice.

Q. Has being infamous gone to your head?

Ha! Infamous. Sorry, but outside of the readers of this blog, no one cares. If I was after notoriety, I would have stayed in the music business (I actually got recognised in public when I was a gigging musician, which hasn’t happened since I started this). Even at QEDcon, hardly anyone knew me.

I know I’ve been on Newsnight, but think about it. There are talking heads on the news every day. How many of those people can you name or even picture now? I’m guessing hardly any. If you want to calculate the percentage of the world’s population who know who I am and/or care about what I do, start with a zero. Then a decimal point. Then six zeroes. Then you’re getting close.

Q. Do you think your reports of ACE Schools in the UK are very dated compared with the modern ACE school?

No I don’t, but I’d welcome anyone who can supply updated information. If ACE schools think that I am relying on out-of-date criticisms of what they do, all they have to do is show me around their school, or write a guest post explaining how things have changed.

Since I started my research, I have acquired the latest versions of the ACE Procedures Manual and Administration Manual. I’ve purchased new copies of dozens of PACEs. What I’ve found is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the PACEs have not changed since I was at school. Where they have, usually the total number of words that have changed is smaller than 1%. The majority of the text in the 2010 Procedures Manual is the same as the 1994 edition, which was current when I completed ACE monitor training.

I haven’t had a chance to blog about the findings yet, but one of this blog’s readers recently sent me the entire set of supervisor’s training PACEs from the early 1980s. They do vary rather more from the more recent versions, but even there, the teaching methods and much of the content remain extremely similar. My conclusion is that ACE rarely changes, and when it does, the changes are minor. The people who run it clearly believe the system is excellent as it is.

On ace-education.co.uk, I have been criticised for suggesting that ACE schools still spank students. But I have never been misleading about this. My post about paddling made clear that the current Procedures Manual instructs teachers not to spank kids in school. I also linked to a number of ACE websites which had clear written spanking policies on their websites. All of the links were active at the time of writing. None of those schools were in the UK, but my focus on this blog is not restricted to the UK; I am interested in ACE worldwide.

Anyway, the case of paddling shows why a campaign against ACE is worthwhile. The only reason ACE schools stopped spanking in the UK is because it became illegal in 1999 for schools in England and Wales to use corporal punishment. If the law hadn’t changed, they would have carried on. As it was, CEE hosted a protest against the law in London (see also here)

Q. All the bad press seems to be instigated by you. Can you explain why then thousands of children educated by ACE are not joining your campaign?

Well, since my main contention is that ACE is a system of indoctrination, I can quite reasonably argue that at least some of them are indoctrinated and think I’m of the devil. Of course, that won’t be true for all of them. No system of indoctrination, even the ones in totalitarian regimes, is completely effective.

It should be noted that most of these ex-ACE students aren’t exactly leaping to ACE’s defence either. I can’t comment on what most students think, because I’m not in contact with them. It’s fair to say most of them probably don’t know about my campaign. I’m in touch with large numbers of ex-ACE students, quite a lot of whom support what I do but have no wish to join the campaign publicly. Some of them would be shunned by their families if they did. Some just want to get on with their lives and forget about ACE, and I don’t blame them. That’s what I plan to do after this PhD.

Anyway, popularity makes no difference to whether I’m right. Almost all major campaigns begin with just one or two voices. The campaign for women to have the vote was ridiculed at first. That doesn’t mean the suffragettes were wrong.

Q. Are you comfortable being an Atheist or is it another crutch to replace Christianity?

In response to the first part of your question, yes.

In response to the second part, no.

(This has nothing to do with anything.)

Q. Are you blaming ACE for your failure to cope with life’s circumstances?

Again with the leading questions! What evidence is there that I’m failing to cope with life’s circumstances?

My life is going fine, in spite of ACE’s best efforts, but guess what? I know a lot of people who do blame ACE for some of their problems, and this complaint is entirely legitimate.

Yes, some of us in Accelerated Christian Education Exposed are angry, some have battled with depression and mental health issues, and some are bitter. If anything, this makes us more credible. Given what we experienced in ACE schools, it would be surprising if nobody had any issues.

It is completely reasonable to be angry if your school taught you falsehoods as facts.

It is entirely understandable to suffer mental health issues if you attended an abusive school.

If you found yourself as an adult with no recognised qualifications and hence no employment prospects, like Anaïs or Christina, and this was because of your school, it is wholly legitimate to blame the school and the curriculum writers.

If you dropped out of university because your school failed to prepare you for the process, it’s fair to ask why they let you down.

If you are gay and your school made you feel like you don’t exist, you have every right to be angry.

If you are a woman and you were raised to believe that you had to obey and submit to your husband, your human rights were violated and, yeah, you should be mad about it.

“Failing to cope with life’s circumstances” is a predictable result of a bad education and abusive teaching practices.

So if anyone plays the “you’re just bitter” card (or anything like it) again, I’m going to ask what their point is. If someone’s been wronged, they may have good reasons to be bitter. Dismissing someone’s complaint because they are bitter shows a disturbing lack of empathy and—frankly—a shockingly un-Christlike attitude.

Even if I and the others who write on this blog are wrong about ACE, as Christian educators, CEE’s first concern should be with the wellbeing of young people. If it were, their corporate image would take care of itself.

Q. How would you feel if CEE reps or ACE parents came to your skeptical tour dates?

OH YES PLEASE!!!

If I am speaking in a city where I am aware of an ACE school, I make a point of letting them know and inviting them to respond. Sometimes, because of a lack of organisation, I don’t give them much notice. So, for example, I think I only gave the Vine Christian School three or four days’ warning before my talk in Reading, so it’s understandable they didn’t come (though it’s less understandable that they never returned my calls or emails).

When I spoke in Lincoln, which is just down the road from Locksley Christian School, the organisers of Lincoln Skeptics in the Pub invited representatives from Locksley almost two months in advance, and Locksley never returned one of their many phone calls or emails.

We have the same situation in Manchester at the moment. I will be speaking in Manchester on August 14, and this was arranged in April. Greater Manchester Skeptics Society has been trying to get someone from King of Kings School to come and debate me ever since my talk was first booked, and again, they’ve had no reply.

I would welcome nothing more than an open, level-playing-field debate with an ACE advocate.

Which means that I find myself ending this blog post exactly the same way I ended the last one:

ACE, why won’t you debate me?

Oh wait, that isn’t actually how I’m ending, because I have a question for the author of these ten questions.

The author and I have been in contact for several years. They have my email address. So here’s what I’m wondering:

Why did I find out about this blog from a Google search?

Did you actually want me to respond, or were you looking to score points?

Related posts:

• The strange case of UK Naric and Accelerated Christian Education
• More ACE survivor stories
• ACE survivor turns cultural anthropologist; destroys curriculum

This is a guest post. The author has chosen to remain nameless. The title (mine) does the post no justice; this is one of the most powerful ACE survivor stories we’ve had and I want everyone to read it.

I was a student at Maranatha Christian School in the UK from 2003 – 2005. I worked at an ACE school in Moscow, Russia in 2007 and at Christian Education Europe from 2007-2009. I also attended for many years a church overseen by then-director of Christian Education Europe, Arthur Roderick.

I started ACE “late” at age thirteen after spending the first parts of my schooling as an atheist in mainstream schools. I have little idea what drew my parents to Maranatha, but I suspect the low teacher-pupil ratio was one of the main reasons.

Having always been a “teacher’s pet” Maranatha was a whole new experience for me. Because I was not yet a Christian at that point and had little spiritual knowledge I was branded a “troublemaker.” In my first year at Maranatha I was given detentions and parents’ meetings for blaspheming, dying my hair, refusing to sing hymns during “opening exercise,” my lack of the “submissive nature” we were taught was expected of women, and even once for wearing trousers instead of a skirt to an earned “non-uniform” day.

I was harassed by teachers and students daily – eventually attempting suicide shortly before my fourteenth birthday. This further branded me as an ungodly troublemaker, particularly as I was referred to a child psychologist. Although the head teacher was not pleased and offered both prayer and a referral to a “Christian psychologist” as alternatives, my mother thankfully refused. I was, however, forbidden from returning to the (or any) doctor after his practical suggestions included removing me from Maranatha completely.

Although I had quite a few more run-ins with the school (such as being subjected to a personal and family meeting with the head teacher for attending a sleepover party that included both boys and girls) I eventually learnt how to “behave” (I never wore trousers near school again!) and the rest of my time at Maranatha went somewhat more peacefully.

Others were not so lucky, I remember one boy being ridiculed by the teachers for having “girl hair” and other members of my class were reduced to tears after being publicly screamed at by the head teacher’s wife for offenses as minor as not completing their lunchtime chores (which included vacuuming the classrooms and cleaning the staffroom) to a satisfactory degree. One of my chores included removing the spiders from the girl’s cloakroom… since I was terrified of spiders I refused in tears and was shut in the cupboard until the job was complete – afterwards I was told to pray for God to make me less of a coward. The school’s policy appeared to be ridiculing and humiliating children into submission.

In case you needed reminding, here’s what ACE’s sex education looks like.

Some of my more bizarre memories include “sex education” lessons. Sex ed in the ACE booklets is notoriously bad, so at the very least Maranatha tried to supplement these. All students over eleven were separated into boys and girls to, very awkwardly, talk about our bodies. I can’t speak for the boys but on our side this included the youngest girl being teased by the teacher for being too young to “understand menstruation” and being told no husband would ever want us if we were “used.” This is what happens when you have a group of mostly untrained (as someone studying for 3+ years to become an educator, I do not count the five day ACE “Professional Training Course”) adults in charge of the education and well-being of children.

I regret many of the things I did and said during my last years at Maranatha – things I taught myself to firmly believe and fight for. These include submitting a presentation to the annual ACE student convention “debunking the myth” of evolution (which won me a medal) and my outspoken hatred of homosexuality. Campaigning for these “issues” made me feel like less of an outcast and helped me to fit in with the other students at school, at least to an extent… as a now openly pansexual person, my own actions during this time absolutely disgust me.

After eventually being asked to leave Maranatha as the school “wasn’t a good fit” I was home-schooled for a year on the ACE program. In reality, from the age of fifteen I gave up on an education that was teaching me nothing but how to memorise abstract facts (fun fact – few ACE students actually read the content of PACEs. As you’re rewarded for the quantity of work and not quality, children quickly learn to just skim pages for the answers they need). My parents both worked full-time and had no interest in making sure I was actually studying.

When 16-17 I was then sent, alone, to Russia to work in a school there on “mission.” Placed in a one bedroom flat with four other people who rarely spoke English at home, I was given no training but expected to teach small classes English as an additional language. For this I was paid USD$100 a month – at the time around £50. I feigned illness multiple times to avoid work because I had never been so much as told how to plan or deliver lessons. Eventually the school sent me home after I attempted suicide a second time. Soon after my parents insisted I take a job at Christian Education Europe (ACE’s European distributor), so I could be “ministered” to.

I noticed that on Leaving Fundamentalism a “whistle-blower” from CEE briefly mentions that “one person was sacked for a supposedly gay relationship…” I can confirm that after some time working at CEE I became romantically involved with a girl I had known for some time. When this became known to Arthur Roderick, I was taken from my work, during office hours, to an empty room where I was asked to confirm the “disturbing rumours” he had heard about me. It was then decided that my “lifestyle” did not match the “family-centred” goals of the company and I was asked not to return to work as I could “potentially influence vulnerable minds” …the irony is not lost on me!

At the time I was determined to speak out about what had happened but was warned that, as a member of a church closely affiliated with CEE, I would no longer be welcome there or in my own home if I did so. During the next few months I was “discouraged” from leaving the house and forced to endure the odd beating (I was nineteen at this point). I was also subjected to almost daily visits from Arthur Roderick and other CEE staff members, mainly so they could pray for the “demons” in me to be released but also in intense, hours-long attempts to change my mind and “put me on the right path.” Other church and staff members, as well as ACE students I had considered my friends, outright shunned me.

It took years for me to get over my apprehension about telling anyone I had been an ACE student, never mind had worked for and advocated the program. It took even longer for me to be comfortable enough to announce my sexuality to boyfriends and other Christian friends as I had been convinced all Christians were taught the hatred I had been at school. I have since been re-diagnosed with PTSD regarding this period of my life. It has only been in the past year or two that I have realised the things I was taught under Accelerated “Christian” Education are not the norm and many Christians (including myself) really can be loving and accepting. I am still too terrified to walk into a new church by myself, though.

After attending college to obtain an Access Diploma (having left ACE with no useful qualifications) I am now at university studying to be a primary teacher. This has brought ACE into a whole new light for me. Every day I am provided with proof that rote and Skinnerian learning is little more than teaching circus tricks of memory recall. I have been provided with so much evidence that most of the world is moving forward towards a constructivist model of education that states that children learn better by doing and experiencing, than by being forced to arbitrarily absorb facts. This is how almost every primary school in the UK is run… but ACE is still ploughing along with a model that was becoming out of date when the curriculum was first written in the 70s.

I once thought that my experiences were unique, but I’m writing this because I have since learnt that there are many stories out there like mine. As a future teacher, I cannot allow these stories to keep being produced from future generations of ACE students. Even now I still feel like a “traitor” for revealing my experiences and have to quell the impulse to add “but ACE isn’t so bad because…” onto the end of any criticism I make of the program.

Related posts:

• A readymade toolkit for institutional oppression
• Pinochet good; gay bad
• Being made to feel like you don’t exist

Upcoming talk

I (Jonny Scaramanga, not the author of this guest post) will be giving my talk “Inside Britain’s Creationist Schools” in Maidenhead on Wednesday September 3. Details here.

Do you feel strongly about shining a spotlight on ACE? Join the Facebook group Accelerated Christian Education Exposed.

It’s all go in the exciting world of fundamentalist education this week as former Christian Education Europe (CEE) employee Christine Gregg has started blowing the whistle again. You may remember that recently a website called Ace Education sprang up, seemingly with the primary intention of discrediting Leaving Fundamentalism. This was the blog that gave the world 10 Questions for Jonny Scaramanga. The blogger behind it was Christine. Now she has had enough.

Christine says that she was pressured into writing the blog by CEE founder Arthur Roderick, but never felt comfortable writing it. Now she wants to expose the unethical practices and bullying she says she saw at CEE.

Last week, I also had an article posted on Guardian Science blogs, in which I revealed two things: 1) Four British universities have stated that they consider the International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE) as entry qualification. 2) When students study science for the ICCE, they will read that it could be possible to generate electricity from snow.

Presumably ACE thought Frozen was a documentary about the potential uses of snow power.

Taken together, these two developments are very bad news for CEE’s flagship product, the ICCE qualification.

Although my post has had more views, it’s potentially Christine’s revelations that will do more damage to CEE. While I’ve caused a stir in the atheist community, Christine has a better chance of being heard by CEE’s customers and associates. I expect CEE will do everything they can to discredit Christine, but the fact remains that she is a Christian and someone who knows the company from the inside.

In particular, Christine makes two allegations that could be explosive: 1) The prizes were fixed at CEE’s European Student Conventions, and 2) moderation of essays on the ICCE was done poorly by unqualified people.

How does this relate to my Guardian article? Well, much of the blame for universities accepting the ICCE must lie with UK NARIC, who have declared the ICCE Advanced certificate to be on a par with Cambridge International A Levels. It is NARIC, along with CEE, who should be answering difficult questions. Whenever I’ve attacked NARIC for its decision, I’ve criticised Accelerated Christian Education, which makes up most but not all of the ICCE qualification. NARIC has therefore always been able to defend itself by insisting:

In 2011, UK NARIC was approached by ICCE Ltd to review broad subject areas and learning outcomes of ICCE qualifications, not ACE curricula, exclusively, as it has been claimed. The ICCE qualifications that were examined as part of the project are baccalaureate style awards that are partly based on the ACE curriculum, but they also include compulsory assessed elements such as coursework, essay assignments and project work which are supplemental to the ACE material.  In-depth analysis of these elements formed a key part of the overall evaluation of the ICCE qualifications.

Because I have no way of looking at these other parts of the ICCE, I could never respond to that. But a former employee of CEE can. And according to Christine, they have been highly suspect. Entries at European Student Convention which counted for ICCE credits have been subjected to questionable marking practices:

As an arts judge I was often told which pieces were 1st, 2nd or 3rd and to mark them all accordingly. If I were to disagree, I would be overruled. Often if a better work was to win, rather than a favoured student, we were given a good reason, such as it “didn’t honour God”, as to why we had to disqualify the work.

Note to attendees: Did you often believe you were inferior to these gifted winners? Nope you weren’t, you just weren’t favoured or were unknown to CEE. I have witness statements from other Christian judges and a 24/7 (a favoured group of ACE graduate helpers at ESC [European Student Convention]) to back up the claims, so don’t take my word for it.

I once was head judge for Web design. There were only four entries and one was outstanding. The last place went to a favoured student whose website was childlike with broken links, poor navigation and looked awful. Unfortunately, this entry was also up for an ICCE credit and didn’t make the grade. The favoured school complained as the student wouldn’t graduate without his pass. I stood my ground and was overruled. A credit was given to an unworthy student. I can state many more cases of cheating at ESC. A 24/7 member came to me and told me a drama event had been nobbled but there was nothing I could do. In photography I was told to disqualify a student as he hadn’t taken the entered photographs. I did so and it was me who took the flack from those concerned.

So CEE, if you want the ICCE to be worth anything at all, you need to check on ESC judging and entries earning credits. It would be honourable to God to have independent judges too rather than relatives of competitors. The rows behind the scene are second to none.

She also reports that ICCE essays have been moderated badly:

ICCE moderation was a disgrace when I worked at CEE. Often the work was moderated badly by one disabled and very incapable woman. Her marking was inconsistent and writing unclear. No one checked her work. I do believe they moderate better now, but not to Government standards.

Christine says that she can substantiate all these claims. If these practices have been widespread, then it adds to the doubt about the ICCE’s validity as a university entrance qualification.

Related posts:

• Revelations from a former ACE insider
• Former CEE employee turns whistleblower
• Even the vicar can’t stand ACE