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.
>
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