The story, published September 3, 2008 on NPR, is a transcript of the prepared remarks delivered by former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee during his March2, 2007 address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
The following is a video of Huckabee telling Cothren’s story,
Veterans Day
In honor of Veterans Day, we reached out to Martha Cothren with questions from a few educators and veteran advocates in hopes of gaining insight into the motivation behind that now legendary lesson. Martha’s responses to our questions were, much like her simple illustration with the missing desks, nothing short of inspirational.
The Following are Excerpts from our November 6, 2014 Interview with Martha Cothren:
Geriann Wiesbrook, Veterans’ Advocate and Founder of Military Mama Network asked: The desk lesson is a personal favorite of mine…I love to share it. What inspired you to do that lesson?
Martha Cothren: I’m asked that question often. The idea for the lesson had crossed my mind years and years ago, but it wasn’t until an incident brought to my attention by another teacher that I actually considered implementing it as a lesson. My colleague – who knew of my passion for veterans and reputation for garnering respect from my students and athletes for our country and flag, shared that she was having trouble getting some of her students to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. It pained me to think that there were children in our school with that attitude, and I wanted to do something to change it.
After consideration, I determined that while I couldn’t require students to stand for the Pledge. The Supreme Court has not been helpful on that front – there is no law on the books that says students are guaranteed chairs in the classroom. So, I reasoned, while I can’t require students to stand, I can remove their seats.
It’s not that I didn’t want them to have chairs; I just wanted them to understand the difference between “rights” and “entitlement.” So that’s where the idea for the lesson began. Continue reading story on next page...
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