One semester of the twelfth grade level course in the Social Studies strand from A.C.E. is a solid civics course. Revised in 1997, it covers both the philosophical background and factual details of government, and it even does a fairly good, albeit brief, job on state and local government. The Biblical perspective receives major attention, including the influence of the Reformation and the resulting "individualism" on the development of government.
The text varies from interesting to boring, as is true of many government courses. It bogs down when it gets into the analytical detail, even though the information is important. I would have liked more historical analysis in some instances. For example, after presenting the text of the Bill of Rights, there is a discussion of "separation of Church and State" in regard to the first amendment, but no discussion of any of the other amendments. The absence of an index is also bothersome in a course such as this. Plenty of full-color illustrations enhance the PACE presentation. The course consists of six PACEs (Social Studies 1133 - 1138) and 2 answer keys. PACEs include Activity Pacs for which replacements are available, making the course reusable at a lower cost.
