ERIC ED403170: A Voice from Mount Parnassus: The Autobiography of William E. Drake, 1903-1989. Second Edition.

206 Pages·1994·2.6 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 403 170
SO 026 276
AUTHOR
Willers, Jack Conrad, Ed.
TITLE
A Voice from Mount Parnassus: The Autobiography of
William E. Drake, 1903-1989. Second Edition.
PUB DATE
94
NOTE
205p.
PUB TYPE
Books (010)
Historical Materials (060)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC09 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*Educational History; *Educational Philosophy;
Educational Principles; Educational Theories;
*Foundations of Education; Higher Education;
Philosophy; *Teacher Education Curriculum
IDENTIFIERS
*Drake (William E)
ABSTRACT
This narrative chronicles the life of the
nationally-known but controversial teacher educator, historian, and
philosopher of education William E. Drake. Drake was the author of
"American Education in Transition"; "The Intellectual Foundations of
Modern Education"; and numerous articles and monographs. He taught
for 50 years at Pennsylvania State University, the University of
Missouri, and the University of Texas at Austin. In Drake's
own
words, issues facing teacher preparation and the nation
as a whole
are addressed. The retired teacher educator raises provocative
questions about the fundamental purposes of education and citizenship
in a democracy. (EH)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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So
A VOICE FROM MOUNT PARNASSUS
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
of
WILLIAM E. DRAKE
1903 - 1989
Second Edition
Edited and published by Jack Conrad Willers,
M. A., M. Div., Ph. D.
Professor Emeritus
Vanderbilt University, 1994
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
Office of Educational Research and improvement
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
CENTER (ERIC)
O This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it
O Minor changes have been made to improve
reproduction
quality.
Points of view or opinions stated in thisdocu-
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
went do not necessarily represent official
OEM Position or policy
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
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Copyright 1994 by Jack Conrad Willers
Peabody College
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee 37203
615/331-8811
4
EDITOR'S NOTE TO THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION
The autobiographical manuscript of William E. Drake
was in preparation for more than three decades,
from at least 1957, when he joined the Department of History and Philosophy of Education
at The
University of Texas at Austin, almost to the time of his death in 1989. As
a graduate student of Dr.
Drake and Lecturer in the department which he
came to chair, I was well aware of the project in the
very early 1960s. Drake's earliest poems date from his youth.
Since I had already edited two earlier Drake publications, Bill also asked
me to edit his autobiography
and poems. With a sense of pride I accepted the honor without realizing the monumental
dimensions
of the task. The original document consists of 991 type-written
pages. The high value in which Dr.
Drake held the sharing of his life's story is indicated by the fact that the manuscript
was mentioned
specifically in his Last Will and Testament.
This edited version appears shorter than the original only by virtue of
smaller, proportional type and
closer line spacing. Bill had the habit of beginning too
many sentences with: "There was...." or
It
is...." Short of rephrasing some of these sentences for clarity and easier reading,
the editorial work has
largely been limited to arranging form and consistency of
appearance.
Nevertheless, the task became so burdensome that it
was necessary to seek assistance in proofreading.
Dr. William Fisher of the University of Montana at Missoula, Bill Drake's
very close and trusted
friend for over 30 years, graciously provided not only that
support but more importantly his immeas-
urable encouragement. Though two university professors, especially
philosophers of education, will
rarely agree, Bill Fisher recognized the social and educational significance of
Dr. Drake's message to
his family, students, colleagues--to the world.
Jack Conrad Willers
Professor
Emeritus
Vanderbilt University
September, 1992
EDITOR'S NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
A second, more focused edition of the autobiography of William
E. Drake is provided for those
friends, former students and colleagues who
are especially interested in his educational philosophy,
historical interpretations and social perspectives. Those sections
of the original manuscript not in-
cluded in this Second Edition arc Professor Drake's letters
to his family from Europe shortly after
World War II, discussions of family relationships and personal
illnesses, and travel-log narratives of
both foreign and domestic journeys. Omission of these
portions in no way diminishes the value or
authenticity of the original Drake autobiography with regard
to his academic and professional in-
sights. It is anticipated that this
more concentrated documentation of his thoughts and teachings will
make them more readily available to
a wider audience of grateful and appreciative admirers.
Jack Conrad Willcrs
Vanderbilt University
September, 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
A Little Animal Is Born
1.
1
The Age of Innocence
2
11
Who Is God')
3
23
The Advancement of Learning
4
33
Roots of a Liberal
5
43
An Unreconstructed Rebel
6
55
"Ycs and No"
7
69
Retreat from Reality: 1946
8
1957
79
Making of a Man: 1957
9
1962
89
New World Is Being Born: 1962
10
- 1968
99
1 Take My Stand: 1968
11
- 1972
103
A New Way of Life: 1972
12
1.975
111
The Will to Live: 1976
13
- 1977
117
Decaying Family Life in the United States:
14
1978 - 1979
125
The Role of Power in the Human Condition:
15
1979
1980
131
The Lack of Ethical and Intellectual Responsibility:
16
1981
1982
:137
Into the Twilight Years: 1983
17
- 1984
143
The Beginnings of a New Life: 1985
18
155
What Is Happening to Our Country?: 1986
19
163
20
Creative Thought in Human Relations: 1986
179
Our Schizophrenic Culture: 1987
21
189
Is Life Worthwhile?: 1988
22
197
The Meaning of Life: 1989
23
207
6
FOREWORD
THE LIFE CYCLE OF A HUMAN BEING
Did you ever sit down and try to spell out in words the cycle of
your life, to see the making of
your mind unfold before you? If so, you know that it is a novel experience, somewhat like free associa-
tion employed by a psychiatrist when he places you on a couch and suggests that
you just talk, letting
your mind roam as it will.
The major difference between the psychiatrist's couch and writing
an autobiography is,
however, that the latter brings some order and meaning into one's thoughts. It is also
necessary to
withhold comment which would reveal skeletons in the closet
or damage someone you love. Neverthe-
less, in this autobiography I have tried to be honest with my readers, to withhold nothing of signifi-
cance, and to make sense out of what 1 have experienced, thought and written. In so doing, I have
found in this task a new sense of freedom and a wealth of valued insight.
William E. Drake
7
Chapter 1
A LITTLE ANIMAL IS BORN
On a Friday morning, September 25, 1903, I came into the world,
a little animal but also a gift
of God to my deserted mother. The circumstances in which I
came into the world were not tfie best,
but in no sense hopeless either. I was born in a great country, at a good time, in
a desirable climate, in
a wholesome community, among respectable people. And yet those conditions were also fraught with
dangers to normal childhood development.
Asheville, North Carolina, was a good place in which to be born. A health
resort center, the
city was especially helpful to the victims of tuberculosis. The surrounding countryside
possessed natu-
ral beauty, unspoiled by the spread of factories and slums. These mountains became
the source of my
childhood inspiration. In the summers, when the mountains were covered with the flowering
beauty of
laurel, they became for me the picture of paradise itself.
East Street in the Doubleday section of Asheville was not the
most affluent part of town. Our
neighbors were not rich, but the children were law-abiding, wholesome playmates.
Next door lived a
doctor's family, and on the other side "Aunt Jane," who
was no kin to me, but loved as if she were illy
fairy godmother. She was a kind and generous woman who
never soured despite the death of her hus-
band. Even now the thought of her cookies brings
a good taste to my mouth, and I shall never forget
the little white mouse she gave me for my first pet.
Our home was a two-story frame house with a narrow stairway in the
center. The front room
was said to be haunted, for at nighttime strange moaning sounds could be heard in the walls, especially
when there was a strong wind from the west. We did have
a bathtub and water closet inside the house,
but they always seemed to be stopped up.
My favorite playground was the barn, especially its loft where
we kept hay for two horses used
in delivering groceries. We dug tunnels, played
games of war and peace, threw hay on each other, and
jumped from the loft to the manure pile below. Once I landed
on the pitch fork, and it was weeks be-
fore I was back on my feet again.
Actually, we did not have a home of our own. My mother and I lived in
my grandfather's
house. My father had left for the Oklahoma Indian Territory before I
was born. He had wanted my
mother to go with him, but my grandfather persuaded her not to
go. My father returned when I was
five months old to try again to get my mother to go back with him, but again she doggedly
refused.
For a while my father accepted her decision, and they lived with her brother,
Eugene Ingle,
helping him operate the power plant of the Southern Power and Light Company
located on the French
Broad River near the village of Inanda. Between the
ages of one and three, I lived in a lonely wooded
valley, half a mile from the electric plant. Although I do not remember
any of the details of this peri-
od, I did develop a sense of intimacy with the environment. My mother spoke of the
wind moaning
through, the tall spruce trees, of looking out upon a military cemetery occupied by neglected
Confed-
erate dead.
But my father was not fully satisfied with this way of life; he
was forever restless and irritable.
While he seemed to have been fond of his son, his mind drew him back
to Oklahoma.
Finally one day he just failed to show up for work. From J.W. Brown,
a lawyer, and Dave
Hopkins, the marshal of the Indian Territory at Chickasha, mother learned that
my father had re-
turned to Oklahoma, but not for long. After straightening out his affairs, he
supposedly started back
east, but somewhere along the way he became the victim of total amnesia. How this happened,
we
1
that he had been beaten and robbed on the road to
never really learned. There was more than rumor
this ordeal and went to his rescue. Shortly
McAlester. Those who knew him in Chickasha heard about
efforts to determine his location failed.
afterwards my father disappeared altogether, and all
Carolina. How or why he went there,
In 1928, my father appeared near Winston-Salem, North
sheriff and told him who my father was. The sheriff called
we never learned. Someone had called the
be done for him. How this contact could have been
my father's brother in Asheville to see what could
imagine. I do know, howev-
made for a man whose mind had been totally blank for 23 years, I cannot
Morgantown, North Carolina, where he lived and
er, that my father was placed in the state hospital at
and serene, but his
worked as a gardener for 20 years until his death. When I last saw him, he was calm
mind was little more than that of a young child.
in my grandfather's house.
At the early age of three I began to realize that I was an outsider
belonging which has fol-
With this awareness there came a sense of internal struggle, a sense of not
I needed. But
lowed me all of my years. I was not an unhappy child. My mother provided the security
did not have a father
there were always those incidents which let me know that I was an outsider, that I
These condi-
like other children, and that I must somehow fight back with a sense of independence.
the maximum use
tions provided the power for my determination to rise above all adversity, to make
of whatever talents and intelligence the God of nature had given to me.
My grandfather was a kind person of natural, down-to-earth virtues which drew everyone to
but
love him. He was the head of his household, and everyone knew it, not because he was a tyrant,
in reli-
because of his character, leadership and stability. There was nothing orthodox about him, not
his soul. His
gion, politics or economics. He was, however, a religious man, but no church ever owned
written
religion was one of doing right by his fellow creatures without worrying too much about the
such
word. He was a good citizen, too, yet no politician ever controlled his vote or mind. Politics as
politi-
did not concern him. He was concerned rather with the character and life of those who ran for
his fu-
cal office. He was a good neighbor, and when he died, rich and poor, black and white came to
ground
neral. Many tears were shed on the day he was buried in the little Inanda church cemetery,
which he himself had donated when his first wife died in 1888.
great-grandfather,
My grandfather, James Blye Ingle, had come from good solid stock. His
Captured
Thomas Ingle, had fought as an officer with the British army in the American Revolution.
World when
and held prisoner, Thomas Ingle liked the Colonies so well that he remained in the New
Jarvis, had
the revolution ended. On his mother's side, my grandfather's grandfather, Olyphiant
the Ingle
founded Marshall College, a Baptist school, one of the first in western North Carolina. Both
began in 1861.
and the Jarvis families were well established and successful farmers when the Civil War
Union Army,
The war brought real grief to my grandfather Ingle, for his father, Tom Ingle, joined the
families. Tom
and as a result he and his mother and father were disinherited by the Ingle and Jarvis
received one penny
Ingle was killed in the second battle of Manassas, but my great-grandmother never
as a pension from the federal government.
The trying circumstances under which my grandfather grew up during and after the Civil War
for, like
made him the kind of man he was. During his youth he labored for himself and his mother,
experience, he
myself, he was an only child. He received little formal schooling. But as a true child of
His first wife bore eight children, one of
overcame adversity and became a successful business man.
of 34 of
whom was my mother, and his second wife seven. My mother's mother died early at the age
typhoid fever, so with these half-uncles and a half-aunt I grew up.
business
My grandfather was a merchant and a truck farmer. My first memories of his grocery
far from Pack Square, then the heart of Asheville.
came from my visits to his store on Broadway, not
when
Nevertheless, my grandfather's grocery was more like a country store, especially on Saturdays
hitched their horses and
the farmers came to town. On a large open lot at the back of the store they
wagons and traded goods.
My grandfather loved horse trading though there
were times when he took a good skinning.
Sometimes a good looking animal turned out to be
a balker. At other times Grandfather Ingle would
come home with a skinny, raw-boned creature which looked like it could hardly stand
up. But in due
time, after being fed well, the unpromising horse would turn out to be
a good animal. At these times,
my grandfather would feel rather proud of himself. Actually he knew nothing about scientific horse
breeding, but as in many other ways he exemplified intuitive genius and the ability
to profit from ex-
perience.
Red and white peppermint candy, Johnson City, Tennessee, hickory
cured hams and sharp,
rich, yellow cheddar cheese were the strongest attractions
to my grandfather's store. Such quality
foods are never to be found in our modern stores. Though I lived
as an outsider in my grandfather's
house, my everyday life with my little half-uncles
was a happy life. Among those children, I was
closest to Slayden, who was two years older than I. He always took
special interest in my welfare, for
which I am especially grateful. When Slayden went to the Flora
McDonald Kindergarten at the age of
five, I also went along with him.
There has been much negative criticism of the Progressive
Education Movement. Yet no oth-
er movement did as much for the welfare of the child. Historically, the movement had its origin
in the
world-shaking, volatile character of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who hated civilization
because of his own
brutal childhood. Still, his was a lesson for all to learn, though there
are yet millions who do not un-
derstand why Rousseau is often referred to as the Father of the French
Revolution.
While the western world had for centuries taught the Christian
concept of the God of love, lit-
tle of it has been practiced, even in teaching children. But the kind
and lovable teacher, Pestalozzi,
understood Rousseau and established a school at Burgdorf, Switzerland,
to which people from all over
the world came to learn about childhood education. Among those who
came was the Prussian scholar,
Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel, who established the first kindergarten in Blankenburg,
Germany. But the
Prussian government did not approve of Froebel's kindergarten; it
was considered too revolutionary.
On the other hand, the American people rejected the kindergarten because of
its German origin.
Nevertheless, the movement did finally take root and has for several decades
been an increasing and
fundamental part of our educational system.
Through the kindness and generosity of Flora McDonald, I
was able to enter kindergarten at
the age of three. The experience was so enjoyable that I continued
to attend until I was seven. Much
of whatever success I have known in both school and in life I attribute
to my kindergarten teacher,
Miss Ethel Ray.
The significance of this early period of life before the
age of six cannot be fully measured or
appreciated, but we do know enough about the nature of humanity to reach
some logically sound con-
clusions. Accumulated evidence indicates that humanity is another member of the
animal kingdom
which evolved from lower orders of being. Traditionally, the
western mind has thought of itself and
God as separate from rather than an integral part of nature. From the Babylonians
came the idea that
God created the world and then humanity by breathing in
a living spirit. This basic orthodox Christian
view is no longer tenable, for we must now conclude that God,
or the creative force in life, is implicit
in the process of creation, that there is no actual beginning
or end as such, and that life and death are
but a part of the processes of change.
This continuous process of evolution has a chemical, biological and social
nature. In the social
stage, humanity has literally lifted itself above other living creatures to make itself the
master of the
animal kingdom, even if we have yet to master ourselves. This change has been
achieved through the
media of language, invention and social construction. A child who is capable
of experiencing this her-
itage at a high level of intellectual and moral freedom, of knowledge and love,
is fortunate indeed, for
out of such experience, mind is constituted.
10
3