Christa McAuliffe - Career As An Educator

Career As An Educator

McAuliffe attended Framingham State College in her hometown, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in education and history. A few weeks later, she married her longtime boyfriend Steven J. McAuliffe, whom she had met at Marian High, and they moved closer to Washington, D.C., so that Steven could attend the Georgetown University Law Center. They had two children: Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six respectively when she died.

McAuliffe obtained her first teaching position in 1970, as an American history teacher at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland. From 1971 to 1978, she taught history and civics at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Maryland. In addition to teaching, she completed a Master of Arts in education supervision and administration from Bowie State University in Maryland. In 1978, she moved to Concord, New Hampshire, when Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the New Hampshire Attorney General. McAuliffe took a teaching post at Concord High School in 1982.

She was a social studies teacher, and taught several courses including American history, law, and economics, in addition to a self-designed course: "The American Woman". Taking field trips and bringing in speakers were an important part of her teaching techniques. According to The New York Times, she "emphasized the impact of ordinary people on history, saying they were as important to the historical record as kings, politicians or generals."