Archive for the ‘Patriotic’ Category

One nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all.

A Lesson That Should Be Taught In All Schools

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.

On the first day of school, with the permission
of the school superintendent, the principal and the building
supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there
were no desks. Looking around, confused, they asked, ‘Ms. Cothren,
where’re our desks?’ She replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you
tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk.’ They
thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s our grades.’ ‘No,’ she said. Maybe it’s
our behavior.’ She told them, ‘No, it’s not even your behavior. And
so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third
period. Still no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom.
Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her
classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in
uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school
desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they
would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last
soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to
understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the
right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you.  They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’