Posted: 8/28/2007 8:27:24 AM EDT
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In September of 2005, a social studies teacher from Arkansas 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 her classroom. The kids came into first period. They walked in, there were no desks. They looked around and asked, "Where are our desks?" The teacher said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them." They guessed, "Well, maybe it's our grades." "No," she said. "Maybe it's our behavior." "No, it's not even your behavior," she replied. Thus, throughout the school day, the students had no desks in the classroom. By early afternoon a television crew had arrived to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. Toward the end of the day the instructor gathered her class for one of the most important lessons she'd impart to them. They were sitting on the floor and around the sides of the room. She said, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that ordinarily sit in this classroom. Now I'm going to tell you." She went to the classroom door and opened it. 27 U.S. veterans walked into the room wearing their uniforms, each one carrying a desk. They arranged the desks into straight rows, then stood along the wall. By the time they finished placing the desks, those kids may have begun to understand why they have those desks. The teacher told them, "You don't have to earn those desks. These men did it for you. They put them 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." __________________________________________________________________________________ This is true, confirmed by Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp |
