John Andrew Rice Jr. (1888 – 1968) was the founder and first rector of
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's education ...
, located near
Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
. During his time there, he introduced many unique methods of education which had not been implemented in any other experimental institution, attracting many important artists as contributing lecturers and mentors, including
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...
,
Robert Creeley
Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...
,
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...
,
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
, and
Franz Kline
Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Moth ...
. During World War II, he made it a haven for refugee European artists, including
Josef Albers
Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...
and
Anni Albers
Anni Albers (born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann; June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994) was a German textile artist and printmaker credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art.
Early life and education
Anni Albers was born Ann ...
, who arrived from the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
in Germany. Later, Black Mountain College became the platform for the work of
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mor ...
, who made the college the site of the first
geodesic dome
A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic d ...
. Because of his strong ideas and unusual educational philosophy, Rice became involved in many debates in the socially conservative 1930s, '40s and '50s, becoming known as a very outspoken critic of the standard model of higher education in the United States.
Early and family life
Rice was the son of Methodist minister John Andrew Rice Sr. and Annabelle Smith, who was from a prominent South Carolina family. He was born at
Tanglewood Plantation, near
Lynchburg, South Carolina
Lynchburg is a town in Sumter and Lee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 373 at the 2010 census.
History
Lynchburg Presbyterian Church and Tanglewood Plantation are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Geo ...
, and attended
The Webb School, a highly regarded boarding school located in
Bell Buckle, Tennessee
Bell Buckle is a town in Bedford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 500 at the 2010 census. The downtown area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bell Buckle Historic District.
Geography
Bell Buckle is ...
, where he met the teacher he would revere all his life, John Webb. Rice then attended
Tulane University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, then won a
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
to
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
After graduating from Oxford, he married Nell Aydelotte and began teaching at Webb School, but left after a year to pursue doctoral studies at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the ...
, which he never completed. He had three children with Nell Aydelotte before their divorce, of which one son died as an infant and daughter
Mary A. R. Marshall and son Frank survived.
Career
Rice secured a faculty position at the
University of Nebraska
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, where he proved himself brilliant in the classroom and in counseling students. His teaching methods were aimed at accelerating the students' emotional and intellectual maturity, rather than encouraging a reliance on a store of subject knowledge.
From the University of Nebraska, Rice took his unique teaching strategies to the
New Jersey College for Women
Douglass Residential College, is an undergraduate, non degree granting higher education program of Rutgers University-New Brunswick for women. It succeeded the liberal arts degree-granting Douglass College after it was merged with the other unde ...
. He was forced to resign after two years amid a faculty controversy which was not resolved. He then landed a faculty position at
Rollins College
Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution.
History
Rollins Colle ...
in
Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Winter Park was f ...
. At Rollins, he found himself again in a controversial position, as faculty and students found him to be either brilliant and charismatic, or divisive and argumentative. Rice also spoke out against fraternities and sororities and objected to various policies of the president of Rollins,
Hamilton Holt
Hamilton Holt (August 18, 1872 – April 26, 1951) was an American educator, editor, author and politician.
Biography
Holt was born on August 18, 1872 in Brooklyn, New York City to George Chandler Holt and his wife Mary Louisa Bowen Holt. His fa ...
, who asked him to resign.
Rice then began planning for the learning community that became
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's education ...
, which opened in 1933 with twenty-one students and three other faculty from Rollins, dismissed for refusing to sign a "loyalty pledge" to Holt. It eventually grew to nearly one hundred. His new ideas included:
: (1) the centrality of artistic experience to support learning in all disciplines;
: (2) the value of experiential learning;
: (3) the practice of democratic shared governance by faculty and students;
: (4) the value of social and cultural endeavors outside the classroom; and
: (5) elimination of oversight from outside trustees.
He also enjoyed bringing in diverse visitors. His innovations soon gained the college national recognition.
He resigned in 1940 at the request of his faculty, who found his personality polarizing. Financial difficulties led to the school's closure in 1956.
After a divorce from his first wife, Rice married librarian Dikka Moen in 1942 and had two children. He then began another career as a writer, contributing many short stories to such publications as ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
,'' ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
,'' ''
Harper's'' and the ''
New Yorker.'' He also published a book of short stories entitled ''Local Color'' (1957), and a classic memoir, ''
I Came Out of the Eighteenth Century'' (1942), which explains his methods and criticizes grades based on memorization, over-reliance on Great Books and classroom attendance.
Death and legacy
Rice died in
Lanham, Maryland
Lanham is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 United States Census it had a population of 11,282. The New Carrollton station (the terminus of the Washington Metro's Orange ...
in 1968 and is buried at Monocacy Cemetery in
Beallsville, Maryland.
Mononacy Cemetery
/ref> His daughter Mary A. R. Marshall moved to the Washington D.C. area during World War II, became a leading local opponent of Massive Resistance
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and ...
and represented Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a County (United States), county in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the Washington, D.C., District of Co ...
in the Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 1 ...
part time for 24 years. His grandson William Craig Rice became Director of the Division of Education Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
.
References
* Adamic, Louis. 1936. "Education on a Mountain." ''Harper's'' 172:516 - 530.
* Duberman, Martin. 1972. '' Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community''. New York: Dutton.
* Harris, Mary Emma. 1987. ''The Arts at Black Mountain College''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
* Lane, Mervin, ed. 1990. ''Black Mountain College, Sprouted Seeds: An Anthology of Personal Accounts''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
* Reynolds, Katherine Chaddock. 1998. ''Visions and Vanities: John Andrew Rice of Black Mountain College''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
* "John A. Rice (1888-1968) - Black Mountain College, Life as a Writer". State University.com, 2008
* "John Andrew Rice: Black Mountain College's Provocative Patriarch". Blackmountaincollege.org.
* Ritholz, Robert E. A. P. 1999. ''History of Education Quarterly'', Vol. 39, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 349–350. Blackwell.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, John Andrew
1888 births
1968 deaths
Black Mountain College faculty
Rollins College faculty
University of Nebraska faculty
Tulane University alumni
Educators from South Carolina
Writers from South Carolina
People from Lee County, South Carolina
Webb School (Bell Buckle, Tennessee) alumni
American Rhodes Scholars
University of Chicago alumni
20th-century American memoirists
People from Asheville, North Carolina