I
like this teacher.
A lesson that should be taught in all
schools . . And colleges
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.
'Ms. Cothren,
where're our desks?'
She replied, 'You can't have a desk
until you tell me how you 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.'
By the way, this is a true story.
Please
consider passing this along so others won't forget that the
freedoms we have in this great country were earned by U. S.
Veterans. |
