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View Full Version : For all the Teachers out there.................



DrKym
09-12-2007, 08:00 PM
Got this in an Email and loved it......





I HAVE CHECKED IT ON "SNOPES.COM" AND IT IS A TRUE STORY!
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp

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 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 (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."

This is a true story....

Freedom
09-12-2007, 08:04 PM
Wow! I hope they weren't too young to grasp it all. I may have been at that grade level.

Great teacher, for sure!

Karen
09-12-2007, 08:29 PM
She is a high school teacher - I would think any high-schooler would be able to "get it"!

Laura's Babies
09-13-2007, 08:45 PM
Excellent way to make a great point! I bet that was a lesson they will never forget!