Way O/T :Teacher

I got this from a friend... don't know where it came from, but I wish we saw more of this spirit in our schools.

LOVE THIS TEACHER

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're 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 or 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. And this teacher was awarded Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 2006.
Please consider passing this along so others won't forget either that the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by U. S. Veterans. Always remember them and the rights they have won for us.
Blessings abound in the USA!

Thank you for sharing, and God bless that teacher.

She's smarter than the average teacher. God Bless Her.

Great lesson. Not only is it true, it hasn"t been embellished.

It's pieces like this that make me wish YT had a "LIKE" button! By the way, with your permission, I think I'll copy it to Facebook.
Good Luck and God Bless

This has been all over the web, for years !
So old, in fact, that they kicked Columbus in the
rear for telling it to the Indians!

One would wish there was more savvy educators like this. I think every school in the U.S. should have a JROTC program, mandatory for every student. PT mandatory for every student capable, and one on one help for those who may have physical or other problems to be overcome teaching them all the while, they can do it even if handicapped, educators need to be experienced leaders. Having disabled veterans as class instructors would certainly instill the values of our country very effectively, as these young people would see and know their sacrifice directly and it would be a great opportunity for any veteran interested, the reward being educating and helping the next generations coming up.

I attended and graduated from a school with this program and although the school itself was in a lull at the time, the most beneficial part of it besides it being geared towards college preparation, was the military instruction, and the extra training via the extra curricular drill teams and tactical teams, of which the former it was required of you to complete an individual road march of 10 miles in 2.5 hours, just to get on the team, I came in 3rd, was 14 years old, (they even presented a medal for the top 3) and was on the team all 4 years. Instructors were active duty, one a 38 year old Army Ranger, SFC, who survived 2 tours in Vietnam, another active duty Army Sergeant and a Drill Sergeant from one of the army bases down south, boy was he something, crab crall city with him, he defined PT, polish, pressed and shine, one hard screw, but an excellent instructor. There were only about 30 on the team at any given time, out of a school of 800 or so, I will say this, when off school grounds for training, none of these guys were any kind of joke, PT you every chance they got, between every single drill, activity, class training, after weapons cleaning and right up until you were to form up and fall out after a weekend or a week of training. These were good men, who took a high interest in those who made the team and the regular instruction all the other students were required to have. We had access to all kinds of training, from weapons to NBC, rappelling, rope bridges, company and batallion warfare with ARNG, Marine reserve units, 2 trips to the West Point confidence course and shooting ranges in addition to all the armories we trained at too. I hated the school and many of the lay teachers except a few who were also veterans, one an english teacher, USMC combat veteran in Vietnam. I never forgot what he taught, and had seen him a fee times over the years, great guy, friend and teacher to all students. It was the actually military aspect that made it tolerable, they'd really have a ball with what we did then, today, with all the gun control as we had training with M16 A1's, always 2 issued one for each company with a 203 launcher, 2 M60's one for each company and we did have a secure room by the military offices if they were not returned to the armory which was marching distance from us and we were able to qualify at ranges, always some live fire training, the rest was usually blank adapters, simulators etc. Darned kids today want to play X Box, video games. The NBC training was an "eye opener" photos of us coming out of the chamber in the yearbook tells it all.

Maybe I'm way off, but educating the youth as to what every veteran has gone through from basic to deployment, would appear to be one of the most effective ways to get through to them as to the cost of them sitting at a desk in a free society, all it took for me was unfolding, raising and saluting the U.S. flag every morning when assigned to that detail or watching the others do it as the detail was revolving, every student learned to fold and raise the flag correctly, it means a lot more when you actually do it. Any student present walking in who did not stand at attention ans salute was in hot water, and that was a rare occurrence, which in the time I was there it happened once or twice, you respected the flag and you knew what it meant, as the active duty Army Ranger wore the meaning on his body, shrapnel scars, hash marks on his sleeves etc.

After I read it again, SNOPES came to mind, well nonetheless, a fancy story, but it does raise a point in a clean manner, and is why I wrote the above, which I firmly believe in, I like when people think outside the box, even if fiction, this one raised a good point at least even if just a story.

I checked SNOPES, and the story is absolutely true, and as Nancy said, was not embellished. However, a fact that was left out, which would have helped put it in context, is that it was a Military History class.