The Right

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 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) 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...

Please consider passing this along so others won't forget that
the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by U. S. Veterans
young and old.