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09/20/2017 08:30 AMOn Sept. 7, Clinton residents packed into The Morgan School auditorium to hear what the four candidates running for first selectman had to say. The candidates answered questions from three students who are members of The Morgan School Political Club. When the forum was over and the audience gave the students a round of applause, looking on proudly was Eric Bergman, an English teacher at Morgan who started the political club back in 2005.
“I started the club because I discovered local politicians didn’t have a forum to debate,” Eric says.
Eric recruited a number of students who were also interested in politics, and formed the club.
“We had our first debate in 2005, and every year since we’ve had one either with local or state politicians,” he says.
Eric says that the club features speakers every Tuesday, and speakers hail from across the political spectrum.
“My proudest accomplishment is creating an unbiased environment for the students,” he says.
That open dialogue appears to be opening opportunities for the students. Eric notes with pride that two former two former club members, Ian Barron and Austin Coco, ran for state representative in last year’s elections.
Eric was born and raised in South Windsor. He attended the University of Connecticut where he majored in English and political science. He then went to Arizona State University where he earned his master’s degree in English. He started teaching in Clinton in 2001, and he, his wife Kathleen, and their two children moved to town in 2007. Eric has spent all 16 years he’s been working in Clinton at The Morgan School.
While he admits that “education seemed an unlikely field when I was younger,” Eric has grown to enjoy his time as an educator. Eric says he’s come to enjoy “being able to connect to adolescents, and help them become aware of their surroundings.”
Eric says he likes when he is able to “spark an interest” in students and “tap into different subjects” that the students find interesting.
“Different students find different things interesting,” Eric says.
In addition to his work with the Political Club, Eric coaches the golf team at The Morgan School, which has seen some success in recent years.
“We’ve won three state championships,” Eric notes.
Eric says he enjoys the kids he coaches and that other teams will routinely pay his team compliments. Eric says the coach of the Portland Golf team, the defending Class IV Champions, called Eric to tell him that Portland based its program on how Morgan’s is run.
“We have kids of great character and class,” Eric says.
For someone with Eric’s interests, Clinton has proven to be a perfect town.
“It’s a town in transition, with a lot of people interested in its civics,” Eric says, noting that he also appreciates what he calls the town’s “vibrant middle class sensibilities.”
Eric may be known to residents who have no connection to The Morgan School because of his involvement with various town causes. As an example of a local endeavor in which he’s involved, Eric points to the recent petition effort to force the Board of Selectmen to let people vote on proposed charter changes. Eric says he got involved with the charter reform efforts as a researcher, and that his work consisted of “making lots of phone calls.” Eric enjoyed working on the charter petition because it was “pretty nonpartisan.”
Much of the reason Eric has committed himself to Clinton stems from a simple bit of advice his father once gave him.
“You have a responsibility to get involved,” he says.
The Morgan Political Club will host another forum for first selectman candidates Kirk Carr (R) and Christine Goupil (D) at a date to be determined. For more information, follow The Morgan School Political Club page on Facebook.