A Story About Learning and the Classroom

I hear I forget. I see I remember. I do I understand.

- Confucius

We like to network with school teachers, because they often have great stories to tell about incidents in the classroom and what they learn from, and how they teach, students. The following classroom story came from one of those school teachers. A real favorite of ours. We believe it will be one you remember.

This is a true story. It is an invaluable example of instilling the meaning of values … up-close and personal. We hope you agree that it is a great way to learn. We believe these students will remember it for a long time.

In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a History 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 in 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…