Max Forbes, Chief Sealth High School Senior
“It’s a great day to be alive.” This is Mr. Junkerman’s catch-phrase. You’d hear it walking into class, in the middle of one of his lectures, or even as the final question on an exam; Mr. Junkerman always found a way to slip in his motto.
It isn’t that this motto made Mr. Junkerman the most influential teacher I’ve had, it’s that this motto embodies who Mr. Junkerman is. He is worldly, having lived and taught in India for years. He is modest, always letting students talk and asking questions rather than revealing an answer outright. He is insightful, kind, and respectful. But more than anything else, he is fascinated, fascinated in learning, seeing, discovering. He once told us that he would be willing to fight with an old woman over a window seat on a plane, so intense was his desire to marvel at the earth from above. He wasn’t without humor either.
Mr. Junkerman began every class by asking how we were doing and what new things we had learned. Somehow he would, without exception, tie in seamlessly our discussion on political events, commercials, or the color of liquid oxygen into the lesson that he had planned for the day, engaging us into what seemed like an extension of his own quest for knowledge and understanding.
This attitude and atmosphere that he would create is what changed me. He helped me see that so much of life and the universe is just downright amazing, we should jump at every opportunity to explore and learn and experience. He has played the role that is indefinable by any school statistic: no matter the percentage of students that make up what diversity, the number of AP or IB classes that are offered, the size of the football team or the ethnic clubs or the band, what truly matter are the teachers. Not how many, nor in what subjects, but who they are, and what they can give to the students. Mr. Junkerman, my tenth grade chemistry teacher, has imparted on me what I believe is the most vital aspect of any educational career, which is a thirst for knowledge.
I only hope that mine, like Mr. Junkerman’s, remains unquenched for years to come.
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