Ben Lingenfelter
English (2000)
- B.A. Calvin College
I graduated from Houghton Academy myself in 1991. After attending college in Michigan and then teaching for four years in Georgia, I returned “home” to teach here in 2000. I consider it a privilege to teach amidst my own teachers and the traditions that have helped form me.
Because I have sat where the students have sat, I have a unique perspective in my teacher-student relationships. It is my unique pleasure to hear students talk about classes that I’ve taken with teachers who taught me, too.
In my own classes, I love to interact with the students and give them small “tastes” of a variety of genres and topics: novels, short stories, poetry, drama, creative writing, research, grammar, and journalism. I think it’s important to expose the students to a wide variety of the “language arts” so that I can pique their interest in some way throughout the year(s).
I also direct the drama program at Houghton Academy, and like my classes, I like to infuse variety into our schedule. We’ve performed such shows as the American classics “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “The Miracle Worker,” Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” and this year - our first musical - Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”
