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, the principal and
the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.
The kids came into first period, they walked in, there
were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Ms. Cothren,
where's our desk?" And she said, "You can't have a desk until
you tell me how you earn them."
They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."
"No," she said. "Maybe it's our
behavior."
And she told them, "No, it's not even your
behavior."
And so they came and went in the first period, still
no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. 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. And she says, "Throughout the day no one has really
understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom
ordinarily." She said, "Now I'm going to tell you."
Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom
and opened it, and as she did 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 wall.
And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids for
the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned
those desks.
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, and don't
ever forget it."
