A great true story.

[SgtBill]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 are 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.
SgtBill
Semper Fi!

[KaosDad]

Excellent!!! Thanks.

[wylde007]

[frankD]

Loved it!

[DWinter]

[southpaw02]

Thanks for sharing that!

[Kreutz]

Wait, what does the military have to do with compulsory education laws? Thats actually not even a "right", its a legal requirement lest you be truant. Puzzling.

[tursiops]

The Snopes version of this has a bit more info. It's true, but it is not quite about a direct connection between the military and the educational system. Rather, it was a more subtle message about how you shouldn't take thing for granted, like freedom.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp