Lesson Taught... “You
all Listen up and Pay Attention!”
(Gratitude
to Meg for this Lesson)
In
September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a
History teacher at Valley Heights High School in Port Rowan, Ontario,
did something not to be forgotten. That first day, 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.”Mrs. 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.” She said, “No.”
“Maybe
it's our behaviour.” She said, “No, it's not your behaviour.”
And
so, they came and went...the first period...second period...third
period. Still no desks in the classroom. Kids called their parents
to tell them what was happening and by early afternoon, television
news crews had started gathering at the school to report about the
crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the room.
The
final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats
on the floor of the desk-less classroom, Martha Cothren said,
“Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or
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) Veterans, all in uniform, walked into
that classroom...each 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. They went
halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting
their careers and families so you could have the freedom you have.
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!”
By
the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded Veterans
of Foreign Wars 'Teacher of the Year' in 2006. She is the daughter
of a WWII POW.
The
Freedoms we have in this Great Country
were
earned by our Veterans!
Let
us always remember the men and women of our military
and
the rights they have won for us.
Now,
Go and Buy a Poppy!
A
Gift of Poppy Seeds
(written by Molly Hayes...published in The Hamilton Spectator)
Remembrance
Day is going to be extra special for Shirley Milligan with thanks to
a random act of kindness overseas. Milligan, in her early 60's had
always been curious about her family history...her grandfather,
especially, who was killed in the First World War. Inside a letter,
from a stranger in England, she found seeds taken from the poppies
that grow beside her grandfather's grave in France ~ which she's
never been able to visit. She was overwhelmed! “I was very
emotional ~ these seeds are the closest to my grandfather I've ever
been,” holding the letter in the kitchen of her home in Canfield, a
small community in Haldimand County. “It was very much a 'a
life is a circle' kind
of thing: these are a part of him...I can grow them; my kids can
grow them.”
This
kind gesture came from a woman she'd never met. Pam Wilkins of West
Sussex reached out to her over Facebook, after both had joined a
group called 'Ashington
Remembered.' Not
not far from the hometown of Milligan's family in England, Milligan
was hoping to discover more about her father's family ~ the Davidsons
~ and about her father's father, Pte. James Davidson Jr., who served
with the 2nd
battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. She knows from records
that her grandfather died on October 3, 1918, near the end of the
war, during a battle in Valenciennes of northern France. Wilkins was
taking a trip to France and wondered if Milligan (who in posts to the
online group, revealed she had family buried there) would like her to
stop by the grave-site. After the visit, Wilkins sent her a photo of
a small cross and plant she placed at his grave attaching an enclosed
note that said, 'Always
remembered'...and
promising she'd mail her a small souvenir from the site ~ never did
she guess it would be so symbolic and personal.
She plans on planting some of the seeds here to honour him.
She hopes to pass some on to her children ~ to keep his story alive.
Statues in Ottawa and Guelph Will Honour John McCrae
A
century after he scribbled the simple but poignant stanzas of 'In
Flanders Fields', John
McCrae is being honoured with two statues. On of the 'larger than
life' bronzes will be installed in Ottawa on May 3, while a duplicate
will be unveiled in Guelph, McCrae's hometown, this summer.
Jim Selbie, a retired general who holds the honourary post of Colonel
Commandant of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, said McCrae
exemplified the citizen-soldier concept: “He had two professions,
both of which he had great commitment to...as a physician but equally
that as a gunner.”
Mike McKay, a Guelph businessman and a retired reservist,
lieutenant-colonel, was one of the driving forces behind the
project....McKay organized a fund-raising project to find the
$300,000 for the Guelph statue. A second effort raised about
$460,000 for the Ottawa statue (which was additionally supported from
National Defence and Veteran Affairs as well as $50,000 from the
government of Flanders, in Belgium).
Canadian sculptor, Ruth Abernethy, shows McCrae sitting on a tree
trunk
...his cap perched on his medical bag.
(Published by John Ward in The Canadian Press)
Merle
Baird-Kerr...written November 12, 2014
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