On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:27:06 -0500, "Steve W."
wrote:


Back in September 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren,
a military history school teacher at Joe T. Robinson High School, 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 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) War 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.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing it with us.


Typically for Americans nowadays, the text said "Where's our desks?"
insted of "Where are our desks?" or "Where're our desks?" Was it the
author or the students who actually muffed that one? /rhetorical q
sigh


To our veterans, I salute and thank you, always.

--
That's the thing about needs. Sometimes, when you get them met,
you don't need them anymore. -- Michael Patrick King