Foxfire Fund

The Foxfire Fund or, simply Foxfire, is a not-for-profit educational and literary organization in Rabun County, Georgia that uses stories and practical instructions from the people in its Appalachian surroundings to teach and promote a self-sufficient, self-reflective way of life. Founded by Eliot Wigginton in the 1960s, Foxfire has published "Foxfire Magazine" continuously since 1966, and the highly popular "Foxfire" books since 1972. Both the magazine and books are based on the stories and life of elders and students, featuring advice and personal stories about subjects as wide-ranging as hog dressing, faith healing, blacksmithing and Applachian history.

The evolution of Foxfire from a literary magazine that Wigginton founded to help his high school freshmen see the importance and relevance of good English skills to a full-fledged teaching approach (aka the Foxfire approach, which features 11 core principles, and which relates to John Dewey's experiential education ideas) orchestrated by the Foxfire Fund, has taken years.

Rabun County students, who were suddenly seeing large checks coming into the classroom as a result of the books' surprise best-seller status, decided to purchase a tract of land on the side of Black Rock Mountain, in Mountain City, Georgia (a short ways from Rabun County High School), and establish a museum of Appalachian culture there. Students helped move and reconstruct a variety of log homes, a grist mill, and more, in order to preserve the quickly fading Appalachian experience for visitors. This is where the Foxfire Fund headquarters is located. During the late 1960's, the 1970's, and the 1980's, the success of Foxfire had inspired many schools nationwide to take on similar programs, and Foxfire started offering teacher training programs.

Despite a series of setbacks involving founder Wigginton during the 1990's, Foxfire continues to train educators in its constructivist methods, which supposes that students must construct meaning for themselves, rather than having to simply memorize information a teacher deems important. In essence, Foxfire, and other constructivist approaches to teaching, say that by constructing their own meaning, establishing relationships, and seeing the connection of what they do in the classroom to "the real world," students are better able to learn. As a result of shifting tides in the educational system, Rabun County High School no longer classifies the Foxfire class as an English class, but rather as a business class, and students are no longer as involved at the museum as they once were.

External links

* [http://www.foxfire.org/ Foxfire Fund's website]