Meet Christopher Benson

As a public school teacher in a different community, Middleboro School Committee candidate Christopher Benson wants to utilize his experience in the classroom to help the district.

Benson is running to serve the remainder of a term through 2025 after a committee member’s resignation. He has young children in Middleboro Public Schools, and he said he’ll have at least one kid in the district for the next 18 years.

Education is facing a period of change coming out of the pandemic, Benson said. He said that his experience teaching amid those changes has prepared him for taking on a leadership role in Middleboro schools.

As a veteran teacher, Benson said he knows which teaching techniques are most effective and engaging. He wants to help the School Committee make student engagement a top priority, which has been emphasized after the pandemic. 

That means making lessons more interactive and inviting collaboration between classmates.

“You have to get to know your students first” before engaging them in a lesson as a teacher or administrator, Benson said. “Then you bring the curriculum to them in a way where they feel more ownership of what they’re learning.”

Parental involvement in academics has grown since the pandemic, and Benson said the resulting sense of teamwork and collaboration has helped keep students more engaged in the classroom.

Benson added that he wants to work with everyone in Middleboro to hear all perspectives on issues that may arise. 

“I want to be a school committee member that listens and works by taking all views into account,” Benson said.

Regarding a potential influx of students resulting from MBTA housing mandates, Benson said he supports the Select Board’s vote to not comply. If a large number of housing units are added in town, he said that would bring expensive changes to the district.

“As a taxpayer, I understand that we need a well-funded school system,” Benson said. “But I want to make sure we’re being responsible and effective.”

Benson said that he sees value in exposing students to different career pathways to apply what students learn in the classroom to the outside world. Social-emotional learning is another priority of his because “there is still trauma left from the pandemic,” he said.

With his experience as an educator, he said Middleboro teachers should reach out to him for support or ideas.

Benson said that Middleboro has everything a child needs while growing up, and he wants to ensure the schools reflect the rest of the town.

“In the classroom, I’ve seen things that work and don’t work,” Benson said. “As a parent, I’ll put our kids first and foremost to make sure that every student has an equitable education and feels safe in Middleboro Public Schools.”