"I touch the future. I teach."--Christa McAuliffe

I may be dating myself here, but I think the matter merits my admission. Just keep in mind that I was a college freshman at the time.

I’d just gotten back from one of the more annoying college classes I have taken in three degrees’ worth of work. When I got to the dorm room my roommate, Bill, said, “You gotta see this.” He was notorious for skipping class, but this time it made sense.

The Challenger space shuttle had exploded 37 seconds after it had launched. Seven astronauts were killed almost instantly. The 25^th anniversary of that disaster will be tomorrow, January 28.

 Among those killed was the woman who was to be the first teacher in space: Christa McAuliffe. After a long, intense competition she had been chosen to represent the education world’s ties with NASA. She was also an NEA member.

Here’s something you may not have known: even on the day before the launch, Ms. McAuliffe sat in the crew quarters writing college recommendations for her students. She was first and foremost a teacher, even the day before she made history. She must have been terrified of the task at hand. It still didn’t stop her from thinking of her students.

Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association and a former high school math teacher, also believes that Ms. McAuliffe played a significant role in opening doors in math and science education for women.

When you think of the time, that’s when we really started real efforts to knock down stereotypes that math and science were for boys and not girls. She was held up as someone who could elevate the profession, which she did so well.

Barbara Morgan, the Boise, Idaho, teacher who had been selected as Ms. McAuliffe’s backup and also trained with the Challenger astronauts, became the first Teacher in Space in 2007. Like McAuliffe, she was an NEA member. You can read about her in the cover story of our Spring 2007 Advocate. She put it this way:

Christa served as a great reminder to everybody that the key to education is good teachers, and that we had and have good teachers all over this country.

Dan Barstow, the president of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, also gave a quote to mark the anniversary.

 There’s a generation of teachers who were around and teaching at the time of the Challenger accident. For us, clearly, she was such an exceptional teacher, such an inspiring astronaut and educator. We still remember her and feel that. It was such a deep-searing moment in the nation’s soul, and we have an obligation to carry on that mission, that legacy, to inspire kids.

A day to remember in education. Touch the future today. Teach.

 

Out with the Old, In with the...Old

One of my responsibilities in this position is to cover the State Board of Education. I monitor the full board, as well as the Committee on Instruction.

When I arrived at the January meeting, the chatter in the room seemed quite happy. New board members were sworn in, and it looked as though the board would take a more sensible approach to things.

This was a conundrum for me. I watch a lot of meetings. Many of the meetings…lack anything interesting. We cover them to make sure nothing bad happens under our watch.

So I did kind of enjoy, in a guilty way, the circus that was the State Board of Education. On the good side, meetings would take less time. The chairs we sit in are uncomfortable, and this new approach would give me more time to do other things. Like blog.

That didn’t happen, though.

Usually, the board takes up the Board Operating Procedures and approves them pretty quickly. This time, though, new members had things they wanted changed. They threw many amendments out to the board, and almost all amendments were rejected. The two that did pass were (1) they would not allow signs in the gallery; and (2) seating would be determined by seniority, not district number.

It was funny watching them stumble around the inner circle. The whole scene looked like a cross between musical chairs and a white elephant gift exchange.

Then came the Committee on Instruction. One of the new members wanted a better definition of "expert." The board uses experts to review new TEKS. During the Social Studies debacle, the board appointed a minister and a former vice-chair of the Republican Party as "experts." The committee voted 3-2 to send a watered-down version of the term to the full board on the last day.

That led to another heated debate, which led to another heated debate, which led to another.

The good news is that this board remains interesting.

The bad news is that my neck is going to hurt a lot from sitting in those chairs again.

Let There Be Peace...

"The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them." -- William Clayton

When I was a college professor, I returned to my parents’ home one Christmas to find this quote in the center of the Aberdeen, South Dakota headlines. It was on a button that a girl at Aberdeen Central High School had pinned to her backpack. It was the early 2000’s, and people were very sensitive about terrorism. Plus, not much happens up there. This was a pretty racy topic.

She was a high school junior, and she received a one-week suspension from school for simply having the button. Nobody told her to put it away or get rid of it. Suspension. A full week. Immediately.

When I returned to campus the next semester, my students and I talked about the situation in class. I couldn’t find a college education major who thought this punishment fit the infraction. It felt good to have my thinking validated.

Fast forward about eight years. Health care reform legislation is up in Congress, and the Tea Party are called to a Code Red Rally on the Washington Mall to fight the reform. The signage included this one:



Saturday brought news of a young man shooting Congressman Gabrielle Giffords in the head with an automatic weapon.

Sarah Palin, the de facto leader of the Tea Party movement, had Congressman Giffords in her sites last November with this poster.

  

When Congressman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on Saturday, I remembered these two signs. I also remembered that high school junior. How would a principal, parent, or board member take it if a teacher stood in front of a class and said something to the effect that if a Brown can’t do it, a Browning can? Was that button in South Dakota really a terrorist threat?

The pendulum swings back and forth in public discourse. Time for it to come back to the middle.