[Rhodes22-list] History? Politics? School Days?

[Ellner]

Brad:  Sent this one on to the "Ms. Cothern's" of our 
family.......Thank You!          Mary







At 08:04 PM 8/15/2007, you wrote:
>A long time ago I lived just around the corner from this school.  I never
>met Ms. Cothren but I'd like to.  Brad
>
>
>---------------------
>
>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 permission of the school superintendent and the
>principal, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.
>
>The students came into first period and discovered there were no
>desks.
>
>They looked around and asked, "Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?"
>
>She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn
>them."
>
>They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."
>
>"No," she answered.
>
>"Maybe it's our behavior."
>
>She told them, "No, it's not your behavior."
>
>And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the
>classroom.
>
>Second period, same thing and third period-no desks. By early
>afternoon, television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren's class
>to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out
>of the classroom. The last period of the day, Martha Cothren
>gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor
>around the sides of the room.
>
>She stated to her students, "Throughout the day no one has really
>understood how you earn the desks that ordinarily sit in this
>classroom."
>
>She added, "Now I'm going to show you."
>
>Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.
>
>27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom,
>each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks
>in rows, and then they stood along the walls. By the time they had
>finished placing those desks, those kids for the first time
>understood how they earned those desks. FREEDOM!
>
>Martha said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it
>for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up to you to sit
>here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens,
>because they paid a price for you to have that desk to sit in and to
>learn and don't ever forget it."
>
>*I received this yesterday and wanted to share it with everyone. I wish that
>every school in this great Nation had teachers like Martha Cothren teaching
>in them. Teaching our children the true price of the freedoms that we as US
>citizens enjoy. When I first read this, I was a bit skeptical and wasn't
>sure that it was true, so I did some checking and found that indeed, Martha
>Cothren did this to teach her history class. Martha Cothren is the daughter
>of a World War II POW and regularly has Veterans visit her classroom, when
>teaching her students about World War II and the Vietnam War. *
>
>*This isn't all that Martha Cothren has done to impart to her students the
>true meaning of selfless service and sacrifice. In May 2005, she and her
>students organized a Vietnam Veterans Appreciation Week, holding an official
>Thank You ceremony in the gymnasium of their school. The event was attended
>by not only Vietnam Veterans, but also veterans from World War II and the
>Korean War. During that week, as veterans told their stories, the students
>videotaped these stories in order to preserve them for future generations to
>hear. Cothren and her students are also active in sending letters and care
>packages to the troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006, the VFW
>honored Martha Cothren as the 2006 Teacher of the Year, an award she so
>richly deserves. *
>
>*I hope that the story of Martha Cothren's lesson about how freedom is
>earned will inspire each of us to strive to follow her example. Thank You
>Martha Cothren for imparting to your students the true meaning of how
>freedom is earned.*
>
>The story can be verified at Snopes<http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp>
>__________________________________________________
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