CLASSROOM

Teachers across the nation strive to help students cope

By Martha Irvine, Associated Press, 2/4/2003

HICAGO -- Many schools across the nation began yesterday with a moment of silence and other tributes to the astronauts who died Saturday.

Flags were lowered to half-staff from Florida to Illinois and Washington state, as teachers searched for ways to discuss and grieve over the loss. Some students were moved. Others -- part of a generation that has already endured the Sept. 11 terror attacks -- seemed fatigued by this latest loss. ''I just want the tragedy to be over,'' Ariana Blake, a home-schooled 11-year-old from Niles, Mich., said as she walked through the space exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry with her parents.

At Horlick High School in Racine, Wis., where astronaut Laurel Salton Clark, a surgeon, graduated, students remembered her as a former classmate played taps in the background.

At Concord High School in New Hampshire, where Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe taught, students remembered Columbia with a moment of silence. The school also scheduled a formal memorial service for today. Children at Dick Scobee Elementary School in Auburn, Wash. -- named for the late commander of the Challenger shuttle -- set up a memorial of candles, balloons, and flowers.

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The school, which already uses one hallway as a memorial to Scobee -- with a flight suit, dog tags, and photos -- plans to dedicate another wall as a memorial for Columbia. ''The kids here really understand what happened,'' principal Greg Brown said. ''They're grieving in their own way.''

The loss of Columbia and its crew did not hit nearly as close to home for most US students. Some teachers say they and their classes were not even aware that the shuttle was in space until the accident.

That was true even in some parts of Texas, where much of the shuttle debris fell -- and where some schools remained closed or canceled recess until their grounds could be checked for wreckage.

Officials at Fredonia Elementary School in Nacogdoches, Texas, where emergency crews had been searching since Saturday, said students seemed to be taking it in stride. ''It seems like there's so much tragedy going on the news. They just handle it and go on,'' Richard Ballenger, a curriculum specialist said, noting that the students had never known life without shuttles in space.

And in Ashville, Ohio, Jennifer Toskin said that while she and her husband were glued to the television all weekend, their 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son were only mildly interested. ''Their world is so small. Their security is their school, their friends, their family,'' Toskin said. ''They're more worried about someone calling them a name on the playground.''

At least one grief specialist said it still was important to let young people know they were free to voice any thoughts or concerns, even if they seemed unscathed.

''This is a teachable moment and a nurturing moment,'' said Alan D. Wolfelt, director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Fort Collins, Colo., and the author of ''Healing the Bereaved Child.''

''To not acknowledge it would be to not acknowledge the significance of human life.''

There were students who had a personal stake in this Columbia mission, including many from across the country who had poured time and passion into science projects for the shuttle. Four students from a Syracuse, N.Y., high school had waited more than three years for their experiment -- an ant farm -- to fly into space. They watched excitedly, and nervously, as Columbia lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 16 with their project on board. The students even had a mascot: a big, stuffed ant they named ''Anty EM.''

''We knew that risks are present all the time. But we thought we were home free,'' said Abby Golash, 17.

A moment of silence, she and the others decided, was the most appropriate way to pay their respects yesterday. ''It's very tough. We had such a personal investment in this,'' Golash said. ''But we want to keep the focus on the astronauts, as a tribute to them.''

This story ran on page A13 of the Boston Globe on 2/4/2003.
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