Desks and Patriotism
Here is a lesson that perhaps should be taught in all
schools, highlighting the fact that we are blessed to live in the United
States of America.
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school,
Martha Cothren, a social studies teacher at Robinson
High School in Little
Rock, Arkansas, 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 students 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, and still there were 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 desk-less 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 U.S. Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that
classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Veterans placed the school desks in rows,
and then they walked over and stood alongside the wall. By the time the
last soldier had set the final desk in place, those students 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.'
This is a true story. The original account can be seen at <http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp>
God Bless America
and our Veterans. The best definition of
a Veteran is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check
made payable to 'The United States of America,' for an amount 'up to, and
including my life.' That is honor, and
there are way too many people in this country today, who no longer understand
that fact.
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