Retiring Teacher Looks Back on All He Has Learned From Kids

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 23, 2021

By Susan McCabe

For Vashon Island School District

For 30 years, Evan Justin has ignited the joy of discovery in McMurray Middle School students.

It’s the joy that has fueled his life since before he became a science teacher and is sure to continue after he retires this month.

During his career, Justin is proud to say, he’s served somewhere around four thousand personalities — because for him, teaching has been about connecting with the people even more than his love for all the sciences.

“I used to think there were certain key things about science that were important for students to carry forward,” he said. “I don’t anymore. I think the frame is important — skepticism, evidence, reasoning and listening. If people are given freedom, curiosity is natural.”

Justin didn’t start out to be a teacher. He started out as a toxicologist working for the Corps of Engineers in nuclear, biological and chemical decontamination. Eventually, though, he realized his goal in that career was to earn enough money to retire early to do what he really wanted to do.

“So,” he said, “I decided to shortcut that process and make a career out of sharing my passion for science.”

His original goal was to give students a sense of awe — a joy to carry through their lives to spark whatever they choose to become. He wanted them to learn that there’s beauty everywhere; there’s meaning everywhere and encourage them to go find it.

Justin credits his success as a teacher with his understanding of middle schoolers’ mental/emotional level.

“I’m the oldest eighth-grader you’ll ever meet,” he said. “I share their senses of humor, their frames of life, they’re ‘in the moment impermanence.’ Everything is really important and it’s right now.”

He respects middle schoolers’ natural sense of experimentation, and he sees it as the perfect palette for launching “a whole bunch of new ideas.”

But Justin also made sure to acknowledge all that he has learned from his students. He began his career thinking his job was to put out as much information as he could. But soon, he learned that his job was to find out what was going on inside each head that came to his classroom.

“At first I thought they were people coming to me to have an experience,” he said. “Then I realized they were coming to me for Lord knows what, bringing to me Lord knows what. And I wanted to find out what that was.”

He realized that the more he invested in finding out about them, the more involved his students became in learning. Focusing on what was going on in their heads and their hearts made the whole transaction meaningful. It stopped being a push and moved into an offering.

In Justin’s class, every day starts with respect.

Even during the year of distance learning, Justin paid attention to each student and how they were feeling that day. He tried to model what he expects from his students. “If I can’t be present with the other person, I won’t get that back,” he said.

His motto has been to shut up, watch and listen — so that he can reach students where they are.

“My heart is filled with how beautiful molecular and cellular biology is and how beautiful evolution is, the epigenetics of structure and how meaning is derived from life interacting with its substrate,” he said. “It’s all beautiful stuff. When people want what I’m selling, I’m succeeding. If I don’t care about the people I’m with, what the hell am I doing here?”

Justin went on: “The atoms in our bodies are part of this earth and have come from this earth, literally from volcanoes. The whole planet’s made from an exploding star that pre-dates our star. Putting all this into 180 hours for 8th-graders has been a joy and a blessing.”

What does Evan Justin see as an inherent value in a Vashon Island education? “We have a self-reflective culture on this island…It makes our kids feel incredibly secure and cared for,” he said. “It can also keep us staring at our own navels. The deal is to strike a balance between what’s important to our community and what’s going on in the outside world.”

Justin has maintained that balance with his students for 30 years, sending the joy of discovery from Vashon to the outside world via somewhere around four thousand personalities.

McMurray Principal Greg Allison agreed that Justin’s work had had an impact.

“Evan demonstrated a passion for science and worked to engage students in looking at the world in a unique and scientific way,” Allison said. “We appreciate his dedication to this work and his service to our school.”