Staff Spotlight: High school teacher Ben Kruse has teaching experience from around the globe

by Don Porter

Ben Kruse is in his fifth year of teaching at Stockbridge High School; this year he is teaching math and science. In addition, he has found time to coach football, girls soccer, and wrestling and has provided weight training opportunities for students. And because he likes to stay busy, Kruse is also pursuing his master’s degree in coaching.

Kruse grew up in Port Huron, where both of his parents were teachers. He has an older brother and younger sister along with three foster brothers and sisters. Until fifth grade, he was home schooled; after that, he attended a small private school of about 80 students. Later, he attended Port Huron High School, which, at the time, had an enrollment of around 1,200 students.

According to Kruse, those three very different educational experiences were beneficial in his quest to becoming a teacher. His parents were great role models, both for teaching and for learning how to run a busy home. In fact, it is their examples that motivated him to become a teacher.

While attending school, Kruse participated in a variety of sports, including basketball, track, soccer, football and wrestling. It’s no surprise, then, that he has made time for coaching Stockbridge students in addition to his teaching responsibilities. He is also musically inclined and played  a wide range of musical instruments in his youth.

His parents loved to travel in the summer, and as a family they visited 49 of the 50 states. Those trips were something special for Kruse and led him to further adventures.

Upon graduating from high school, he attended Saginaw Valley State University where he earned a teaching degree with concentrations in math and science. Toward the end of his college career, he had the opportunity to travel to Australia where he taught in a boarding school. His previous student-teaching had taken place in Saginaw public schools, and he found that teaching in Australia was a really different experience.

After he received his teaching degree, Ben retraced one of the family trips and went back to Alaska. While there, he taught elementary students and high school math for two years in Quinhagak. This was a small village with a population of about 700, the majority of whom were Alaska Native people. For Kruse, his time and work in Quinhagak offered exposure to a whole new lifestyle and the chance to really expand his skills.

A desire to return to Michigan to be closer to home resulted in Kruse applying and being hired as a teacher in Stockbridge in July 2019. Thus began another phase of his life teaching in another type of community.

Ben has a strong base in his faith, and it has helped him as he works with students to encourage them to develop good values and a strong work ethic. In his view, while course content is important, it is more critical for students to focus on using the learning process to become successful and positive adults.

Don Porter is a former Stockbridge Schools deputy superintendent. He also served as assistant principal at the Jr./Sr. High School, and then principal at Smith Elementary, Katz Elementary, and Heritage School. He and his wife, Tammy, live in Stockbridge and enjoy fly fishing, golf, traveling, and working in the yard.

All photos provided by Ben Kruse.

Kruse’s time in Alaska exposed him to a whole new lifestyle and the chance to really expand his skills. Here he is pictured inside the head of a bowhead whale skeleton in Alaska.

In Alaska, Kruse assures the photographer that everything is fine, even with a grizzly bear off in the distance.

Stockbridge High School math and science teacher Ben Kruse taught in Australia and Alaska before joining the faculty in Stockbridge.