Topic: What Have We Earned?
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies 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 prinicple, and building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom. When the first 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 of having 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, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.
By early afternoon television news crews has started gathering in Ms. Cothern'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 the puzzled studetns found seats on the floor around the deskless room.
Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in the classroom. Now, I'm 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 uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk and stand alongside the wall.
By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand 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 heros did it for you. They earned 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 that you could have the freedom to have education. Don't ever forget it."
God Bless America- and Our Veterans!
*What is a Veteran?
A 'Veteran'- whether in active duty, discharged, or retired is 'someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check, made payable to 'The United States of America', for an amount 'up to and including his life'.
That is honor... and there are way too many people in this country today who no longer understand that fact.
Signed,
An American Soldier
