CHRIS HUNTINGTON

I was fortunate enough to be in Chris’s class for not one but two years for IGCSE English – this was 8 years ago now, and that I still have such a strong impression of his classroom and the works we read is testament to the kind of teacher he is. I think one of the greatest gifts Chris extended to us high school students was a sincere respect for our intellectual and creative capacities as peer to his own, even (and especially) when we did not consider ourselves as such. He encouraged us to sit with texts that I would have otherwise dismissed as beyond my scope and to approach them with more thoughtfulness and humility. We were challenged to think about creative writing as a dynamic process of generating, reflecting, and revising, rather than my preexisting notion of it as something that sometimes happened in a singular moment when inspiration struck. His classroom was a space where we could engage and encounter things that drew us in, from the rotating poems he always kept on the classroom door to the curated collection of books around the room and his openness to discussing ideas or areas we were curious about. I didn’t feel so much like (just) a student in Chris’s class than like a thinker and creative in my own right, which, I think, was not only invaluable for my developing relationship with language and literature, but for my sense of self too at one of the most malleable periods of life. His care for his students as whole people extends far beyond class, too. He has always been incredibly approachable and generous with his time: I remember frequently coming to visit during lunch or after class (or after graduation!) to discuss books, and how he volunteered time to help set up a spoken word poetry group at school that was an important space for myself and others. At last, though it’s a little thing in the scheme of it all, I’ll always be grateful to Chris for an early introduction to Frank O’Hara via the poems on the door; sometimes I wonder if I would be quite the same person if I hadn’t read that one poem at the time I did, and I’m glad I’ll never have to know.

 

--Aydan Shadhadpuri, UWC class of 2016, Barnard 2020

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Chris Huntington has the rare talent of teaching the book without teaching by the book. When discussing Kurt Vonnegut's non-linear narration style, we are asked to consider whether we are all time-travelers, jumping between the present and past in our heads, leading to a conversation on how human beings process time. His irrepressible passion for the written word shines through in every lesson, allowing us to make connections beyond the texts and truly appreciate the essence of literature. 

 

He invests in his students outside of the classroom as well. As a writer himself, he nurtures and encourages his students' creative voices. Not many teachers would make the effort to write out three-paragraph emails to their students about everything from board games to Yukio Mishima: with him, it is a regular occurrence. He is an accessible and engaging figure, inside and outside the classroom. This, in turn, makes his subject accessible and engaging, but above all: interesting. 

 

--Maya Prakash, UWCSEA class of 2021, Williams College class of 2026

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