A Real Lesson

Every once in awhile I get an email that really hits me. This is one of those. I have gotten into the habit of checking these out on the Urban Legend website (http://www.snopes.com/). According to the website this story is true. I could not pass up reprinting it here. I just have two words for you Mrs. Cothren: Bravo Zulu (Navy lingo for well done or great job).

Classroom Desks

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies schoolteacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, 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 the classroom.

The kids came into first period, they walked in, and there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Ms. Cothren, where's our desk?" And she said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them."

They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.
"Maybe it's our behavior."

And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."

And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren's class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of the day, Martha Cothren gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, “Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily." She said,
"Now I'm going to tell you."

Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. Veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks; those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks.

Martha said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out 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."

Be an Early Riser

I hear people complaining that they don’t have the time to do the things they want. Yet there is a simple technique that will allow them to add a month to their year. The math is simple. A 40-hour workweek means we will work around 2000 hours annually (assuming a two week vacation), or around 166 hours a month.

Getting up an hour early five days a week will add 260 hours of available time. That still leaves two days a week to sleep in. What could you do with an extra 260 hours?

According to Julia Cameron, author of “The Right to Write,” lawyer Scott Turow wrote his novel “Presumed Innocent” on his daily commuter train, while his fellow passengers slept, read the newspaper or talked among themselves.

The trick is not finding the time. It is taking the time to do what you want. It’s a choice: the Wheel of Fortune or a 30 minute walk. You make similar choices all day.

Some people use their extra hour to run. That never looked like fun. Most runners I see never smile. I have used my extra hour to walk. That is one activity I really enjoy. I also use my hour to meditate, to study and to write. After reading Julia’s Cameron book “The Right to Write” I started writing morning pages. She recommends three pages in longhand.
For some this early morning hour is their most productive time of day. There are no telephones, no interruptions, and no distractions.

Dale Carnegie, in his book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” takes a different approach to adding an hour to every day of your waking life. His recommendation is taking breaks throughout the day. His theory is that you should rest before you get tired. “If you are over fifty and feel you are too rushed to do it, then buy immediately all the insurance you can get. …Your spouse may want to take your insurance money and marry a younger person.”

Just imagine what you could accomplish both being an early riser and taking breaks throughout the day.