Wednesay, March 19, 2003
Faded papers reveal children´s awe of Columbia
By MARK HARPER
NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
DELTONA — A late sleeper, 80-year-old Mildred Harris was still in bed that Saturday when her husband and daughter delivered the news.
Space shuttle Columbia had disintegrated. For hours, television networks replayed tape of Columbia breaking into bits, burning a streak in the Texas sky, searing sadness into our souls. But while many people moved on with their Saturdays, Harris had a different experience.
“That was the end of my day,” Harris recalled. “It was so catastrophic, I guess we stayed glued to the TV most of the day.”
Sometime on that Saturday, she remembered something she couldn´t part with, not even when she retired from New Jersey to Deltona 16 years ago. She had kept a small collection of the best essays her second-grade pupils wrote at Mount Vernon Elementary School in Newark on April 15, 1981, the day after Columbia completed its first mission.
“You know how you have a sense of something big, worthwhile?” she said, trying to explain why the essays had survived nearly 22 years, 1,051 miles and more than 100 shuttle flights.
Harris took the essays, most of them two or three sentences long, with her to the monthly meeting of the Retired Teachers Association. She shared them with her colleagues.
“We were all amazed,” said Dorothy Zydel, president of the retired teachers group. “We were flabbergasted the children knew so much.”
The essays tantalize memory.
On the one hand, they´re details that spark recollection: Where we were when the first shuttle landed, our second-grade teacher´s name, how we learned handwriting. But the other side features the frustration of unanswered questions.
For instance, the essays only contain the pupils´ first names. In some cases, first names and last initials: Jose C., Kisha P., Donna O. Harris doesn´t remember their last names and neither she nor the Newark school district have records. We don´t know what happened to them.
But the essays collectively tell the story of the first launch in more depth than might be expected of second-graders.
A couple of the essays make reference to the tiles that made up the orbiter´s outer shell. Some had fallen off during that first launch, causing concern for the safe return of astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen. Tiles and the damage caused by foam insulation from the external fuel tank have also been studied for their role in Columbia´s breakup Feb. 1.
Zydel called the coincidence “astounding.”
The teachers´ group lives for the moments that revive memories. The things pupils produced provide currency that was perhaps lacking in paychecks.
Zydel, a kindergarten teacher in Hyde Park, N.Y., for 13 years, explains.
“I know I have my class pictures, my class roster lists,” she said. “I have pictures of my classrooms. I think most teachers do.
“You get very attached to the children you teach. It´s nice when you can follow their progress.”
That´s how it was with Harris and a girl who was in her class nine years before the one that wrote about Columbia.
“The way she made me feel was special,” Lysa Simmons remembered. “I was on the shyer side. She was always very encouraging, very loving, giving of her time.”
Today, Simmons is nearly 40. She is director of student life at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, N.Y.
For years, Simmons kept in touch with Harris, writing letters, sharing pictures of herself all grown up. She was especially touched when Harris attended her high school graduation.
About two years ago, Simmons said she wrote Harris and didn´t hear back. She feared the worst.
Then, out of nowhere, came a call from a reporter wanting to talk about her old teacher. She and Harris spoke.
“We talked a good, long time,” said Harris, who said she never received Simmons´ letter. “I was elated that she even worried about me. It´s a wonderful feeling to know you´ve left such a good impression on some of your students.”
And for the children of 1981, it may be in equal parts surprising and comforting to learn their work continues to leave an impression.
What pupils wrote in 1981
The space shuttle Columbia´s maiden voyage was scheduled for April 10, 1981. But a computer glitch led to a two-day delay for the launch. Then, April 14, 1981, the space shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., capping the mission. The next day, Newark, N.J., second-grade teacher Mildred Harris asked her pupils to write about it. Here´s what they wrote:
Maureen: “Last Friday, the space shuttle Columbia had a problem. So it went up Sunday. My mother said it will still be in history!”
Amir: “Some tiles fell from the ship but did not cause a problem.”
Donna O.: “When they landed in space, there wasn´t enough gravity to keep them down!”
Jose C.: “The space shuttle landed safely yesterday at the airport. All the others landed in the sea. But the space shuttle landed on the ground and then the astronauts saved the shuttle for another day.”
Kisha P.: “They were happy to see their wives.”
Dalandra: “They didn´t go boom!”
Janet: “Extra extra! Read all about it! The space shuttle Columbia went up on April 12, 1981. When it went up, some tiles fell but not enough to cause a problem. The astronauts were inside. Then on Tuesday, the astronauts landed. They were safe!”
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