[geetrue]

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren,
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."