Blair Merton is excited to get back into teaching and has several goals for the year ahead.
01 February 2024
After a 15-year break from teaching, Blair Merton is keen to return to the classroom.
The avid reader and history buff will teach history and geography at Kaleen High.
He will also run a Strategy Games Club, where students play miniature wargames.
He’s the ideal person to coordinate this, having served in the Australian Army during his teaching pause.
“I’d taught at a few different high schools around Canberra throughout the 2000s – Canberra High, Lanyon and Belconnen – before taking an extended hiatus from teaching in 2009,” Blair said.
He moved to the Education section of the Australian War Memorial before enlisting in the Army and being posted to Darwin.
“Life in the military meant that I was part of a wider family of a diverse range of people and experiences, and as an older soldier, I often found myself helping others through their personal trials and tribulations. I often found myself helping some younger soldiers with their written aspects of their courses and administrative work. I was probably the worst shot in the Army, but I did have a knack for communicating,” he said.
The thought of returning to teaching was never completely out of his mind.
“My wife began working as a midwife, and we both decided that due to the stresses and strains of our professions we would return to Canberra where we could be closer to our extended families,” he said.
Although Blair isn’t new to teaching in the Territory, he joins the almost 170 new educators working in ACT public schools this year.
He is excited to get back into it and has several goals in mind for the year ahead.
“I’m aiming to improve my student outcomes, their skills. I want to inspire curiosity and build people of good character. I always try to remind my students that a good life means building a balanced life, and I try to remind them of the principles of justice, courage and wisdom. The Ancients started this kind of education back in the day, and there's still a lot of merit in those principles.
“The best thing about my subject area is that you make links between all the various disciplines of science, literature and maths in order for students to see the world around them and develop an appreciation of that world, because one day they'll take custodianship of it,” Blair said.
Blair understands how a good schooling experience can shape a person.
“My favourite subjects in school were History and English. My favourite school was Higgins Primary – I have so many good memories from those days. Playing rugby and cricket, watching BTN on the TV trolley, the fetes, discos and Saturday afternoon matinees in the school hall,” he said.
He is pleased to be back in Canberra and views the lifestyle here as conducive to an active family life.
“Canberra has lots of opportunities for my children to play sport, attend events and take up hobbies. My family loves living near the bushland, and we regularly run and walk our greyhound on the back tracks. I love playing music in my band, The Lonely Fates, and the Canberra music scene is so much bigger and more professional nowadays,” he said.
Who knows? For someone so comfortable with change, perhaps a move into Kaleen High’s music department could also be on the cards in future.
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