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Eliot Wigginton

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Eliot Wigginton (born Brooks Eliot Wigginton on November 9, 1942) is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He is most widely known for developing with his high school students the Foxfire Project, a writing project comprised of interviews and stories about the skills, folklore, and experiences of the elderly members of Appalachian that led to a magazine and the series of best-selling Foxfire books. The series comprised essays and articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia focusing on Appalachian culture. In 1987, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year,"[1] and in 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.[2]

In 1992, Wigginton confessed to and was convicted of child molestation.[2]

Early Life

Brooks Eliot Wigginton was born in West Virginia on November 9, 1942. His mother, Lucy Freelove Smith Wigginton, died eleven days later of "pneunomia due to acute pulmonary edema," according to her death certificate. His maternal grandmother, Margaret Pollard Smith, was an associate professor of English at Vassar College and his father was a famous landscape architect, named Brooks Edward Wigginton. His family called him Eliot. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Cornell University and a second Master's from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, he began teaching English in the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, located in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Georgia.

Foxfire

In 1966, Wigginton began a writing project with his students, who began to compile written oral histories from local residents based on recorded interviews. In 1967, they began to publish the interviews, along with original articles and other student writing, in a quarterly magazine called Foxfire,[3] named after local phosphorescent lichen. Topics included folklife practices, customs associated with farming, and the rural life of southern Appalachia, as well as the folklore and oral histories of local residents.

The first anthology of collected Foxfire articles was published in book form in 1972, and achieved best-seller status. Over the years, the school published eleven other volumes. The project transferred to the local public school in 1977.

In addition, special collections were published, including The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, Foxfire: 25 Years, A Foxfire Christmas, and The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games. Several collections of recorded music from the local area were also released.

Other work

Wigginton had an interest in activists' working for social change in association with the Highlander Folk School. After a decade of collecting oral histories of people struggling for social justice in the South, Wigginton edited and published, Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grass Roots Social Activism in America, 1921-1964 (Doubleday, 1991).

In 2014, Wigginton contributed an oral history interview for a documentary on Mary Crovatt Hambidge,[4] founder of the Hambidge Center for the Arts & Sciences, describing his childhood memories of Hambidge and her weaving operations at the Rabun County property where he also briefly lived in the late 1960s.

Child Molestation

On September 15, 1992, Wigginton was indicted for child molestation.[2] The state charged that Wigginton had sexually fondled a 10 year old boy during an overnight stay at the Foxfire grounds. Wigginton at first claimed to be innocent; however, local prosecutors announced their intent to release testimony from over 20 people claiming that Wigginton had molested them as children between 1969 and 1982.[2] On November 13, 1992, Wigginton pleaded guilty to one count of non-aggravated child molestation.[2] He received a one-year jail sentence, which he served at the Rabun County Jail, and 19 years of probation.[2] Bill Parrish, then-executive director of Foxfire Fund, announced that the guilty plea would require Wigginton's "total separation" from the organization.[2] After permanently stepping down from the Foxfire Project, Wigginton moved to Florida, where he is registered as a sex offender.[5]

Foxfire after Wigginton

After Wigginton's departure, the Foxfire project continued under the auspices of the Foxfire Fund and its educational model of the "Foxfire approach" to experiential education. The students and Fund developed a museum in Mountain City, Georgia, consisting of several cabins. In 1998, the University of Georgia anthropology department started to work with the Foxfire project to archive 30 years worth of materials. The collection is held at the museum and includes "2,000 hours of interviews on audio tape, 30,000 black and white pictures and hundreds of hours of videotape." By improving how the material is archived and establishing a database, the university believes the materials can be made more easily available for scholars.[6] The Foxfire educational philosophy is based on the values of "a learner-centered, community-based expression." By 1998, educational theories from Foxfire was being used by teachers in 37 school systems in the US.[6]

Bibliography

  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1972). The Foxfire Book. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot, (1975). Moments: The Foxfire Experience. Kennebunk, ME: Star Press, Inc. ISBN 9993818283
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1976). 'I Wish I could Give My Son a Wild Raccoon'. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot, (1985). Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0385133596
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1990). A Foxfire Christmas. New York: Doubleday Books.
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1991). Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grassroots Social Activism in America, 1921-1964. New York: Doubleday.
  • Page, Linda Garland & Eliot Wigginton, eds., (1992) The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

Legacy and honors

  • 1986, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year".
  • 1989, he was awarded fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Former Georgia Teachers of the Year" (PDF). Georgia Department of Education. 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Smothers, Ronald (November 13, 1992). "'Foxfire Book' Teacher Admits Child Molestation". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  3. ^ Mendonca, Adrienn. "Foxfire". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  4. ^ Mary Crovatt Hambidge: Whistler, Wanderer, Weaver, Utopian (2017, remastered 2021), retrieved 2021-12-29
  5. ^ "FDLE - Sexual Offender and Predator System". offender.fdle.state.fl.us. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  6. ^ a b "University of Georgia To Help Archive, Preserve Thirty Years Of Materials From Foxfire Project", University of Georgia Archives, 1998, accessed 12 Nov 2010
  7. ^ Beaufort, John (November 18, 1982). "Heartfelt essay on a disappearing rural America; Foxfire. Starring Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Keith Carradine. Play by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn, with songs by Jonathan Holtzman. Directed by David Trainer". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  8. ^ "Winners". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  9. ^ a b Foxfire (TV Movie 1987) - Awards - IMDb, retrieved 2023-08-15
  10. ^ "Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie Nominees / Winners 1988". Television Academy. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
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