View source for Mountains Christian Academy

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2012}}
'''Mountains Christian Academy''' (MCA) was an [[Independent school|independent]] [[Nondenominational Christianity|non-denominational Christian]] [[Mixed-sex education|co-educational]] [[Pre-school education|early learning]], [[Primary school|primary]] and [[Secondary school|secondary]] [[day school]], located in {{NSWcity|Blackheath}}, in the [[Blue Mountains (New South Wales)|Blue Mountains]] region of [[New South Wales]], Australia.

==Overview==
The school was affiliated with the Covenant Evangelical Church. This church was founded by [[Howard Carter (Evangelist)|Howard Carter]] in the mid-1980s, and the school was started to educate the children of the church. 

It originally began as a high school in 1976<ref name="Long1994" /> and eventually included kindergarten and primary when there were enough children. It followed an education system known as [[Accelerated Christian Education]] (ACE), which came from the [[United States of America]]. MCA was one of the first schools in Australia to implement this system of education, closer to a homeschool academy than to the familiar type of church school.<ref>{{cite conference |first=Robert |last=Long |title=The Development of Themelic Christian Schools in Australia' |date=1993 |conference=Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education |url=http://www.aare.edu.au/93pap/longr93365.txt }}</ref>

Although MCA itself was a short-lived institution, it was the testing ground for a new educational paradigm that took off very rapidly.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alan |last=Barcan |title=Sociological Theory and Educational Reality: Education and Society in Australia since 1949 |url=https://archive.org/details/sociologicaltheo00barc |url-access=limited |location=Kensington, NSW |publisher=New South Wales University Press |year=1993 |page=[https://archive.org/details/sociologicaltheo00barc/page/n250 229] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Harrison |title=The Logos Foundation: The Rise and Fall of Christian Reconstuctionism in Australia |work=Publications of the School of Journalism and Communication |publisher=University of Queensland |year=2006 |url=http://eprint.uq.edu.au/archive/00004355/ }}</ref> The swift success of this new style of education caused uncertainty<ref name="Long1994">{{cite conference |first=Robert |last=Long |title=The Search to Explain a New Schooling System |date=1994 |conference=Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education |url=http://www.aare.edu.au/94pap/longr94344.txt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328064207/http://www.aare.edu.au/94pap/longr94344.txt |archive-date=28 March 2012 }}</ref> and disquiet<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Speck, Cathy |author2=Prideaux, David |title=Fundamentalist Education and Creation Science |journal=[[Australian Journal of Education]] |volume=37 |number=3 |year=1993 |pages=279–95 |doi=10.1177/000494419303700305 }}</ref> among Australian educationalists. At MCA, [[Logos Foundation (Australia)]] introduced a type of education which offered an inexpensive, locally controlled alternative to state-run schools but was "criticised for religious, racial and community segregation", and the early-1980s saw intensifying conflicts between the ACE and government schools systems.<ref name=hunter>{{cite conference |first=Roger |last=Hunter |title=The Shock of the Old: The Militant Church and Education |conference=10th Annual Conference of the Australian Comparative and International Education Society |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |date=24-26 November 1982 |url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED268221&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED268221 |format=abstract }}</ref>

The Academy closed in 1988 when the Covenant Evangelical Church and Logos Foundation (the CEC's political and educational arm) moved their headquarters to [[Toowoomba]], [[Queensland]]. The curriculum and culture of The Academy was eventually duplicated by Logos at [[Toowoomba Christian College]].

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.aceministries.com/ ACE Official Website]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,3605,1556061,00.html Divine and Rule] Guardian article 27 August 2005 about ACE in the UK.]

{{Nondenominational Christian schools in Australia|state=autocollapse}}

[[Category:Nondenominational Christian schools in New South Wales]]
[[Category:Defunct schools in New South Wales]]
[[Category:Defunct secondary schools in New South Wales]]
[[Category:1980s establishments in Australia]]
[[Category:1988 disestablishments in Australia]]