Teacher
revels
in new career
‘It’s my
destiny to be here’
First in
series
By DANA
DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
It’s the
first day at school, and she’s wearing a mint green power suit.
Shaun
Merrick is not an inappropriately dressed student, but one of the Wood
River Middle School’s newest educators. In addition to the fact that it’s
a new school with new faces, it’s, more importantly, a new career for
this mid-30s single mother.
Shaun
Merrick is a new arts teacher at Wood River Middle School this year.
Express photo by Dana Dugan
A Boise
native, Merrick, who had a teaching degree but had not used it since she’d
married and had children, recently decided it was time to go back to work.
"Teaching
was my plan all along," she said.
She
pestered the Blaine County School District office about a social studies
opening until word of the arts position reached her.
After all,
she earned her degree from Albertson College of Idaho in 1992, with an
emphasis in art. During her college years, she also studied art in
Amsterdam and Paris.
Earlier
this summer, she was interviewed by art teacher Chris Malmgren, and WRMS
Principal John Cvetich, who wanted to beef up the art department.
"I’m
convinced we’ll all turn into robots or killers if we lose the
arts," Merrick said.
Her passion
for the subject clearly convinced them of her worth. Merrick wasted no
time, buying a house in the new Foxmoor subdivision and moving her family
up to the Wood River Valley.
"This
is a perfect job for me," she said, while siting in a small language
arts classroom at the school. She’ll also be teaching the Lindamood-Bell
reading process in the language arts program.
Merrick has
lofty and admirable plans for her students. "I’ll be responsible
for teaching art history; how art affects what we wear, how we look and
the buildings we inhabit." It will involve exposing the students to,
for instance, Egyptian art, Native American art and Japanese art.
"We’ll
start with ancient art cultures and show the progression from art in
symbols to cave paintings."
Merrick,
whose daughter is in the first grade in Bellevue and whose son is residing
temporarily with his father in Boise, has a long history in the Wood River
Valley. "I’ve know people here my whole life," she said.
She won the
State A1 Singles Tennis Championship here in 1984 for Borah High School.
Later, she was a nationally ranked junior singles player and received
"a free ride (scholarship) at Albertson," based on her tennis
skills. She also plays the violin and cello, and is an avid skier.
Teaching
also seems part of Merrick’s history. Her grandmother Nini, who moved
here with Merrick and her children, was a school teacher in Mackay, Idaho.
Her career began there in a one-room school house in the 1930s when she
was just 17.
Every new
teacher has a mentor when they start in Blaine County. Merrick’s is Ann
Marie Renaud, a reading specialist. They plan on having lunch often to
touch base. "She’s there as a support system and coach,"
Merrick said.
On her
first day of school, Monday morning, in her mint green suit, Merrick was
carefully calling out names and trying to place faces with them. It’s a
long school year, but Merrick, is refreshingly confident.
"It’s
my destiny to be here."