OTS #2 - The Challenger

This week marked the 25th Anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I was teaching at an independent high school in Pasadena, CA, and doing lots of triathlons, including the Ironman. I heard about the competition to be "Teacher-in-Space", spoke with my school administration, and everyone thought it would be a great idea to apply.

One had to write seven essays as part of the application process, and the one I worked hardest on was about what I would do with the experience in space to further education about space and science. I had a Ph.D. in History, and I was teaching U.S. History and a course on China and Japan. But I really thought it would be great to integrate "going into space" into all kinds of programs: looking to the future, exploring new worlds, expanding technology, using space as a metaphor for innovation in all walks of life. I am pretty enthusiastic and upbeat. Obviously, I was not selected. For the rest of my teaching career, however, not only did I proudly post my certificate on my office wall, I also continued to receive all kinds of materials from NASA. I always shared these with my history students. At least, I could give back in a small way.

The morning of the disaster itself, I was in Napa Valley a few days ahead of the Napa Valley Marathon, which I would be running on Saturday. I went for a training run, and got back to the bed and breakfast to find people gathered around the small screen television in the office, and when I asked "What's up?" they told me. I nearly collapsed. Even today, I sometimes think about it.

This week, the news shows have been filled with commentary about the Challenger disaster, 25 years later, but they haven't mentioned what I think is most interesting. Just about every elementary school student in the U.S. in 1986 was in a room where the televisions were tuned to the Challenger take-off, and they witnessed that disaster firsthand. A generation of children, now adults, when asked what historical event most affected their lives, cite the Challenger disaster. It touched more people, in some ways, than 9/11, since most were not tuned in at the time of the crashes into the World Trade Center.  Yet, I wonder how many of those millions of students can now explain why the Challenger failed - a problem that actually was solved.

I would not be here writing had I been the teacher-in-space, but I think about Crista McAuliffe often. She taught American History at a high school in New Hampshire, and would have been such a great spokesperson for space exploration and its significance. Many lessons were learned because of the disaster, but what a terrible sacrifice, for all seven aboard. Here's a link to a short video of the disaster, to watch once again, to honor those lost.  Challenger disaster video

First day of blog school!

This is my first blog and I feel a little nervous, just like the first day of real school. Even after teaching for over 40 years, I always have first day jitters. It's the same here, I want day one to be really good. I taught history, and so one of the very first things I always did was to ask: what if I gave you an assignment for next week, to write your own history. What would you do? Where would you get information? And, how would I know if what you said was true?
Well, obviously, I wouldn't. And so it goes for so much of written "history" - it's a story.

This blog is also a story, of some of my adventures, some of my teaching moments, and just some of my thoughts. My students made up names for stories I told them - I always called them "off the subject",  so in the abbreviated text language of today, I choose "OTS" to describe them.

OTS #1: It's about 60 on it's way to 75 here in southern California today, but back at our home in Maine, it is -8 degrees right now. Have you ever thought about how weather affects your life? Today, at 5:35AM, I dove into the pool along with others from my masters team. We had a long Monday morning workout, really great way to start the week. It was crisp walking back into the locker room, but every day in winter, when I know what the weather is like in colder climes, I feel very lucky.

I heard about the bombing at one of Moscow's airports, killing at least 31 people, injuring over 100. I remember when I started teaching, in the 60's, reporting the "body counts" to my students every Monday morning - from the war in Vietnam. Some weeks, there were, maybe, 268; other weeks, there were, about 421: American soldiers. I did mention that the number of Vietnamese deaths were not reported.  The average age of the American soldiers killed was 19 years old. But then, one weekend, maybe in March, 1967, there was a Delta Airlines plane crash outside of New Orleans. The plane  carried the entire high school class from a small town, somewhere in the midwest  and there were no survivors. They were going to Mardi Gras as a senior class trip. My students at that time, 9th graders in a public high school in New York, were horrified. I immediately asked why this was different than the body count tally from Vietnam.  We went on to discuss that and subsequently, I have often told that story. Students react differently, but there's no question it makes all of us think about what and why it is different.

 This was during my first year teaching. This is my first day blogging. Stay tuned.