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,Eliot Wigginton;~avho stal-ted teni$,grade Englishec&sci in ,‘, ,+pala&ian Mountains of .,_,.,,_ ., ,, guides the artivitjes, ,of,.T$,e Fox@: Fund. Inc. Ijr+ studmts h now expanded their efforts to iI’?lude ii’?~t’olily” the ‘prc~d~ction ~~~ the Er~x$~pmagazine and books, but also the creation’ of ~ shot~s~~~~~~~t~ei~l~~ &m&nit); qbierTVstatio~,:’ a~~seri~e%of _ bum’s ,+f traditional music, atid, a series of mvestigatiops into tfie

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“‘J IX.&& Gay Me”

Index

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Cumulative j~,.~ and Foxfire.6

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Best I,.C~uld with the Brain Nature ’ ‘, ‘i “;; ’ ‘1 ’ s :y. . . YsF 1~ .”hIemor3es of the Amerlcan’,@hestnut ~‘397 gj ~:~ ‘-. .,,d I~_ ig “LJncle-Jbhn’ 6s in tkle’ Crib Ste&nrCorn,” =+-=wti c,& _’a&

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INTRODUCTI’ON

constantlij ‘&d myself’ !fr;r’ awkwa&‘l s’ituations. un Among’ the”‘ most ., , c -3 .‘~’ ,:a accepted an invitation to . &mfb&le a,re tho&i~n w!hich~”I ~,o~k,as,‘:alConsu~lta~t for a day ,oi tw~o‘in, a public school. Suddenly ~‘the$e ~IIam, standing in, frbn~ 06~a group. of teachers who have every reason t&expect.mgto tell them either tha~ttheyare doing something’! ;wretng, ,:or that~.t.hey$hould’ tie doing ,s.omething else in addition to ’ the’hea;y loa”d,$l,%y:re already carrymg. why else would I’be there? And this, gi.ven,,theyfac‘t~ that 1”have never seen any of-them a’t ,qork with their students,~‘have $0 li~de_a h&G-, they operate, or what jF specific ,dail,y”problems they-face. You see Why it:s an awkward situ. c j ‘6 “5; ...”“..‘-“‘~__,-_- _,.,,” /;’ atioy. i. ‘. b‘. to” see fiqsthand Such visits”have gioen me~.the chance’,,however, , a number of other‘public schools besides the ,oiVe in’w’hich I teach. The~y’ve heipe,d me grow. Sometit& I’ve de~elo$d’lasting friendships with colleagues in those sch.ools. And always%pe trade-no~tes” -~I_,., wh?ch of us has th,e better princxpal, lunchroom,i.or working: condi” .~ ; ’ tionsXmd combat I’m asked foi: adCice.,I usually refuse, w the situ-ation Miell..ena,ugh (and youldn’t~ if I stayed a month). But re&tly;over coffe~e’~~~a’nnew fri~endand I sat dotin and half in jest, half seriously, posed the follo$ng: ,Accept for the moment the fact that because there are too many~~ variables at work; ‘public schools will net;er be perfect learning’enviT2 ~,~~;ronments. Accept als-o the ‘fact that despite, ,~‘a11‘the’ ’ to the needs of rhe students and~the communities it serves. d

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FiI-st: Ever? deiail in the Dhvsical. environment ,of a school. no matter how small, matters and contributes in a “ctimulative*way to the overall totie. ~Some of these det@ ar-6 so &nor ?s to’be .unnoGccable by the ordinary observep: but in their own^sm’Yl way, each makes 3 differ-ence that can lead,to a sense of, “Somethi~~g? l’ight (or wrong) here, ” ., &fzn though I d.on’t know what it is.” Recently I taught an‘experimentzl ddurse of five students. Because c’ $here wq’e+zo classronms available during that period, we “floated” /from dav to dav from one available su'ack to arihther. One of the rooms we used~from time to time was a Small &ndowlesS’conference room thqhwaS almost wombhke in its isolation from” the rest of -the school enviionment. Everv time those stu,dq?ts %nd~I were in that room, their behavior was significantly different from their norm. It was almost as though they were lobotomized., Only-through great effort w&-e we able to break through that~listlessl unemotional G-a&e and carr); on some form of discussiofi. In another qvironmentone with rindows and space and air-they werescompletely d,iffered pe~ople. &‘e all recognized the effect the conference/,&oml,had on us, bu’tnone of us was able to pinpoint exactly ,what &as hap’pening there. Somehow the combination of colors, windhwless walls, isalatio’n, anh the incessant buzzing of the fluorescent lighting transformed:;tis in a. noticeable way. Had I been assigued to that space * I

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’ $jfor the &tire quarter and $dt- been~)a,ble ior obs&ve ihoie same five stud&% in .different enjiroriments,, I ‘might have,assumed, that, both the coul-se and ihe’stuflents ,ivere lost chases-a,~,~e”xperiment 1 not worth ~iepeating,:H6w ~many~,,o~