What? No Desks!

What? No Desks!
A lesson for teachers that should be taught in all
schools--and colleges.

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 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 deskless
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 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."

Submitted by Hal Barnett, verified by Snopes.com to
be true. See www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp.