This is where my mind goes when I think about the Challenger explosion. For me, where it all began. On a small college campus in the 60's. The country's first college founded just to train teachers.
Within these halls were classrooms, all filled with people, mostly women, who wanted a career in education. Some of the buildings dated back to the early 1830's and there was a series of tunnels between buildings that had been part of the Underground Railroad. Very handy when the temperature dropped or the sky opened up.
One of the students in our graduating class was Sharon, "Please call me Christa", Corrigan. She was a commuter. She, like I, majored in secondary education and so we shared many classes over the years. When she was selected to be the first teacher in space, I, like everyone in the class, was both surprised and proud.
Over the course of time, those of us who were teaching were given the opportunity for our classrooms to participate in the lessons she would be teaching from space.
On January 28, 1986, my students and I stood outside watching the launch, waving American flags.
Adults who have watched launches knew immediately that something had gone wrong. What to say to the children was the hard part. My thoughts went immediately to her husband and children, who were watching from Kennedy Space Center.
Today, Framingham State College houses the Christa McAuliffe Center for Education.This Center offers professional development for teachers, corporate team-building seminars, and Christa's dream - a hands-on science center for middle school students where they participate in a mock Voyage to Mars. It is just the way she'd like to be remembered.
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