Four months into my role as Foxfire’s executive director, I sit in this ever-increasingly-cluttered office, window open to one of the first true days of spring we’ve seen here on The Land. Tomorrow I will be giving my first report to Foxfire’s board of directors. Has it only been four months?

The season is fitting enough. This spring is very much a rebirth. As if that metaphor needed any more weight, this is Holy Week to boot. Full disclosure, I’m a recovering English professor and must tell you that the impulse to wax poetical about these first four months, the spring, and the Resurrection is pretty strong … but, I’ll spare you.

In my short time in this role, I have come to learn and appreciate much about this 50-years-young organization. Growing up just south of here in Habersham County, and later choosing to make folklore my academic discipline of choice, I have been very aware of Foxfire for much of my life. Yet, knowing a thing and living a thing are two very different states of being.

What I knew, one could pick up from reading the books or discover in the numerous articles about Foxfire and its programs. Nine years ago, writing my dissertation, I justified buying several volumes of The Foxfire Book series for research. As a faculty member, first at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and then at Georgia Perimeter College, I incorporated elements of The Foxfire Approach to Teaching and Learning in my English classes. That is what I knew.

But, in these last four months, I have discovered what it means to live Foxfire. To live something like this is to get to know its very essence. As it relates to this organization and this place, “living the thing” has involved getting to know many remarkable people – living and dead – through their contributions to this incredible endeavor – walking with ghosts, talking with icons.

[…] that has involved getting to know many remarkable people – living and dead – through their contributions to this incredible endeavor – walking with ghosts, talking with icons.

It has meant sleepless nights spent excitedly drafting out ideas or anxiously contemplating how to navigate delicate issues. It has tested my family’s patience – from my son enduring a 10-hour trek with me as I went to interview with the board in December (where he made the very sincere comment to the recruiter that he hoped I got the job because he could tell I really wanted it) to my wife and stepson tolerating my checking email every 10 minutes or taking hours to wind down from a particularly busy day.

Living this thing means getting stopped in the grocery store by a Foxfire alum and being told that she’s felt neglected by the organization. It means hugs and handshakes and well-wishes from community stakeholders. It means anxiously awaiting word from my curator because he’s scraping snow from the museum road. It means jubilation when the organization meets its first-half match requirement for a NEH Grant.

If you think that all sounds very taxing on a person, it is. If you think it means that this isn’t the best damn job I’ve ever had, you’d be dead wrong. What excites me most is how this first four months has shown me the potential that resides within the organization. From inside, from this office, I can tell you that potential is immense.

I look forward to writing more in the coming months, sharing with you the news from The Land. I also look forward to publishing more articles from Foxfire students, past and present, along with the perspectives from educators who embrace the “approach” in their classrooms. As well, there will be contributions from our staff and our board – all keeping you, our Foxfire Family, up to date on the happenings up here on our mountain. I invite you to check in with us whenever you have the opportunity. Additionally, if you aren’t already, follow us on our social media accounts at Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get more news from Foxfire. There is much to come. Stay tuned.

~TJ Smith
TJ is Foxfire’s executive director and can be reached by email at director@foxfire.org.