Suzanne Murakami was my 12th grade English teacher when I was at McKinley High School (should be renamed Honolulu High School). This was in the 1998-1999 school year. Just before the new millennium.
That class focused on British literature. While I felt (and still feel) that high school English classes should focus more less on literature and more on having us refine our writing skills and grammar, I did like Ms. Murakami as a person.
Her impacts went far beyond what we learned from literature.
In the beginning of the semester, she did ask us to each mention what made us happy. Toward the end of class, someone asked "can we now say what makes us mad", and she responded politely that we wanted to emphasize positivity and we tend to focus too much on the negative
The most impactful moment in her class was when we (the students) asked what the opposite gender wanted the most from our gender. Me being the brash know-it-all said "girls just wanted guys with status" and noted Mike Tyson still had groupies even with his allegations (this was in the 90s). When I mentioned that, the boys cheered on what I said, the girls jeered at what I said. Then, at the end of the class, Ms. Murakami said that what we all wanted the most was to be loved and respected. Now, I started to feel some level of guilt for what I just said to the whole class about girls just wanting a guy with status.
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I did see Ms Murakami a few times after I graduated when I came back to campus to watch the new generation of Tigers graduate from our school. We did have a brief chat about where I was in life.
But eventually, nearly all the teachers from my generation retired and I haven't heard from her in years.
Earlier this summer, she passed away. The cause of death wasn't announced.
You may read her obituary at https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2022/07/06/suzanne-yuriko-murakami-06072022/
