work yet to be done

[threeplusfire]

Another teacher goes into space.

That means a lot to me, for reasons that don't really translate well. At least not yet. But I have never forgotten watching that shuttle go up, and explode into sparkling fragments and smoke. How we were sent home early from school, and the horrified sound of my teacher's voice behind me, saying "Oh God." All those years, all those sci-fi novels and all those dreams of the universe beyond our atmosphere.

Comments

[cyniccat.livejournal.com]

What I never understood is how everyone felt really bad for the teacher who died in the Challenger explosion.

Why are we shooting teachers into space?? Aren't the other Astronauts smart enough already?

Why don't they give a fuck about the other 6 or so sorry bastards who blew up??

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I think it was because the whole idea of the educators in space program was a really hopeful, idealistic thing. This thought of sending 'real' people up there, who were going to come back down and share their experiences was neat.

And yeah, it is kinda sad how she overshadows the others.

[doctorno.livejournal.com]

What I never understood is how everyone felt really bad for the teacher who died in the Challenger explosion.

Because she was a civilian, someone who really hadn't "signed up" for the whole "die for your country" sort of thing, just an average citizen in for an educational ridealong. Of course death is a possibility; it always is, in any situation (Clarence Piggot, a teacher at Valley High School in Las Vegas, was shot dead by a student when I was a student at Valley's sister school across the city).

Why are we shooting teachers into space?? Aren't the other Astronauts smart enough already?

We send civialins into space as a symbolic bridge between the known and the unknown, as a way of saying, "Eventually, this will be all of us."

Why don't they give a fuck about the other 6 or so sorry bastards who blew up??

We do. It was a horrible thing. But they did not die in vain; they knew what they were getting into and had accepted the full measure of those risks from the outset of their careers. The teacher, on the other hand, was a "victim" of odds.