Ontteacher
Full Member
Just in time for Remembrance Day:
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject: Gotta love this teacher· Quote
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 was the same. 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.
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject: Gotta love this teacher· Quote
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 was the same. 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.
