First Posted: 2/12/2015
Editor’s note: This Optimist column first appeared in the Sunday Dispatch on Feb. 9, 1986. This column has been edited for space.
It struck me this past week, as I read another tribute to Christa McAuliffe (a crew member killed in the space shuttle Challenger explosion of 1986), that it took her unique courage and, unfortunately, her tragic death, to put America’s teachers in the headlines for something other than striking for higher wages. That’s a shame. Teachers deserve better.
Everyone is wondering why the shuttle tragedy made each of us feel such a keen sense of loss. Hasn’t television brought such gruesome, saddening events into our living rooms before?
Haven’t we witnessed leaders being assassinated, the Pope getting shot, airplanes going down and buildings going up? Aren’t we used to this stuff by now?
So why this incredibly heavy-hearted feeling at the loss of Christa McAuliffe and her six colleagues?
Christa McAuliffe’s profession — TEACHING — may be the answer.
There isn’t one of us who does not bear the impress of our teachers. Every teacher, no matter what the subject, no matter what the teaching style, EVERY teacher we’ve ever had is now a part of us. We can’t do anything about it.
Someone once said an education is everything you remember after you’ve forgotten everything you learned in school. In a way, this facetious comment is true. Teachers don’t TEACH you as much as they CHANGE you.
I don’t care if you consider yourself the worst student who every entered the classroom, your teachers changed you. You may not have noticed it, but they did.
Teachers assume a tremendous responsibility when they stand before a class. They do so much more than teach history, science, or math. Directly or indirectly, they teach ethics, morals, manners, grooming, social mores, likes, dislikes, you name it.
Each teacher leaves an impression on us that we carry the rest of our days. We may not always be aware of it, but it is still there.
So when we see a lovely young woman boarding the space shuttle and know that she is a TEACHER, it touches a special place deep inside of us.
And when that space shuttle vanishes before our very eyes, it leaves an emptiness impossible to fill.
If I were king, I would set aside a day each year to honor our teachers and I’d dedicate it to the memory of the young teacher we lost on Jan. 28, 1986. I’d call it “Christa McAuliffe Teacher Appreciation Day.” I’d have open houses at our schools and invite graduates back to say some long overdue thank yous. I’d do it up big.
I’d do everything I could to make the word TEACHER as special and important as possibly. Just the way Christa McAuliffe did.
