Assistant Teacher

Shalom! Hello! 

I am Mr. Ben; the son of an Oklahoman turned English teacher/social worker & batique artist at the height of the Arts and Crafts Movement, turned Post Modernist Architect, AKA, my Mom. And a Chicagoan turned child, family, and adult therapist specializing in early childhood development, AKA, my טאטע (Dad). Both retired. I am bicultural and my family is multicultural. Growing up my neighborhoods were diverse. 

I’m your ordinary American Tumbleweed, settled here in the Green Mountains. Born in Colorado, raised in The Bay, BFA & MFA from Savannah, where I met a Vermonter, we are raising a Vermonter, and it is here where I have studied education and received my PreK-12 Art Ed. licensure. 

Steadfast, I possess and am maintained by a balanced approach, having an approachable, and calm demeanor, conducive to problem-solving. I am comfortable with complexity and paradox. I value analog and digital approaches. That said, it is not lost on me there is poetry, practicality, and wisdom in keeping things simple.  

Since the age of 19, I have found myself in leadership positions from my first Café Barista work to the past two decades in a local medical practice serving Vermonters. I developed a work ethic in a variety of sectors. Examples include fabricating medical devices by hand, as a draftsman and model builder for an architect, and dabbling in theater performance. There are two areas I have been involved with, all of my days; art and education. I have been teaching in one capacity or another since I was 13; from camp counselor to college professor. When I was four, I declared I was a cartoonist. I have been making, studying, and lecturing about comics all my life. I am an established local, national, and global comics community member. I regularly utilize my background in art and education in most contexts.

I hang out at the five corners where art, education, culture, narrative, and lexicons intersect. Comics are interdisciplinary and lend themselves diversely to individual lives, community intersections, and society. That said, students, collaboration, and fundamentals will determine our curriculum.

Teaching at Montessori represents in part a return to my roots, as I was once a Montessori student. We will be working collaboratively, centering each student, and maintaining community. I will be focused on nurturing the foundation being established integral to engagement and agency in each child's lifelong learning; meeting them where they are in the moment.

I play drums and I no longer high jump.

“A Friend.” -Kal-El c. 1978