We have all received them, you know, those emails that are forwarded around time after time. Well today I read one that had some really good content to think about. In our modern age with so much to learn it is often difficult for some to understand the difference between rights and privileges. One of the main lessons I have tried to instill in my children is that the things that they have, are earned, not owed to them because they exist. These things may not always be earned by them, but by someone somewhere who cares about them. If they can not repay the debt they have created, then they should at least gratefully thank their benefactor and treat the thing with the utmost respect.

This has also been one of our methods of discipline. My children must earn their privileges and pay for their mistakes with by giving up privileges. Now you have to understand that I have two wonderful girls and it is very difficult for me not to spoil them(and they know it :-) ). So there are many occasions when they get things that we have earned for them and they keep those things by showing their appreciation and respect. Many people in our country forget that the freedoms we enjoy have been earned and are protected by those in public service and by those in the Armed Services.

A Lesson That Should Be Taught In All Schools

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. Looking around, confused, they asked, 'Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?' She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to 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 deskless 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.'

This is a true story, you can check it out on snopes. There is more to the story.

I wish everyone in America could be so lucky to have a teacher who cares enough to teach them not only how they get the privileges they enjoy, but also their responsibility as citizens to keep and respect what they have been provided with by others.