CONCORD, N.H. – Before Christa McAuliffe was an astronaut, she was a vibrant teacher in New England keen on showing her students how everyday people left extraordinary marks on U.S. history.
Nearly four decades later, a new documentary focuses on how she still inspires others and less on her fate aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
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“Christa: From Ordinary to Extraordinary” from New Hampshire PBS explores her close relationship with the state and its capital, Concord, where she was picked from more than 11,000 applicants to be the nation’s first teacher in space.
“You say ‘Christa’ in New Hampshire, everyone knows exactly who you’re talking about,” Gov. Chris Sununu says in the film. Its release on Thursday comes three months after a bronze statue of McAuliffe was unveiled at the Statehouse, on what would have been her 76th birthday.
The documentary features interviews with community members, footage of scenes such as a Main Street parade for McAuliffe, and some of her comments — including her parting speech to Concord High School seniors in 1985. It reflects the pride and joy felt by residents then and now for an enthusiastic teacher who loved learning and telling stories.
McAuliffe was 37 when she was killed, one of the seven crew members aboard the Challenger when the space shuttle broke apart on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986. The documentary briefly touches on the tragedy.
“We all want to be remembered for who we were, what we cared about, what we loved, what we did, and not how we died,” Jeanne Gerulskis, the recently retired executive director of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, says in the film.
History through the eyes of ordinary people
McAuliffe taught social studies at Concord High School beginning in 1983. She created a course devoted to the history of American women that's still taught there today. People in the documentary said she wanted students to see the role that ordinary people, particularly women, can play in history.
McAuliffe saw herself as one of them. A lover of field trips, she looked forward to bringing back her thoughts and journal from the shuttle mission “like a woman on the Conestoga wagon pioneering the West,” she had said in an interview.
Holly Merrow, a former student of McAuliffe's in the women's history class, feels the documentary embodies her spirit of wanting to inspire children.
“We felt like we were going to space, as well,” Merrow, now a teacher in Maine, recalled about McAuliffe at a recent screening of the film.
Educating future generations
The documentary also talks about the importance of telling children who McAuliffe was.
In New Hampshire, many children learn about government beginning in fourth grade. They visit the Statehouse. McAuliffe's statue stands near the entrance, a good starting point for a discussion. It's the first statue added to the grounds in over a century, and the first woman.
At Concord High School, Kimberly Bleier teaches social studies in a room where McAuliffe once taught. In the film, she says she often reminds herself that “there’s a lot of responsibility there” to ensure that what McAuliffe brought to the school, such as her love of hands-on learning, is still remembered and talked about.
Bleier currently teaches “Street Law,” a general introduction to the legal system that emphasizes criminal and juvenile law. McAuliffe had taught that class, too.
Bleier was a sixth-grader when she watched the space shuttle launch on television. She recalled how devastating it was.
“I don't want to watch the shuttle blow up again,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. “I want to watch her. I want to hear her.”
Where can I see it?
The 30-minute documentary can be viewed online on the New Hampshire PBS website. Viewers also can stream it on the PBS App.