70 Vets Visit MentoneMENTONE - More than 70 veterans attended the Veterans Day program at Mentone Elementary School Thursday morning.
When the program was first held in 2007, there were 34 veterans in attendance.
The veterans Thursday were treated to a mix of song, poetry and performance. About 27 of the veterans also participated in the skit "They Paid the Price" by Vonda Ryman's class.
The skit was based on an e-mail Ryman said she received. Her class reenacted the e-mail, using chairs instead of desks.
Back in September 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher, did something not to be forgotten, according to the e-mail.
On the first day of school, with the permission of the principal, 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, the students asked where the desks were. The teacher replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk."
The students thought and gave various answers. Cothren said "no" to each answer the students gave.
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 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, 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, Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven U.S. veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The veterans 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.
The teacher 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."
For Mentone's skit, 27 veterans brought in the chairs and put them around the desks placed in the gymnasium. The veterans then stood back as the students took their seats.
In the other parts of the program, special education teacher and Sgt. 1st Class Cathy Olson lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Music teacher Tana Tinkey lead the students in a medley of songs, then Ed Rock sang "This is America".
First-graders read "Poem on Veterans Day" by Cheryl Dyson before all the veterans stood to be recognized. Ashley DuBois' class passed out paper poppies to each veteran as "The Poppy Poem" was read by Vicki Swihart.
After Ryman's class' skit, the school watched the video "I Fought for You".
Swihart organized this year's Veterans Day program.
Placemats in the cafeteria for the veterans were made by Pam Smith and Kayla Rassi's classes. Posters of appreciation for the veterans hanging in the cafeteria were made by Marge Sanders' and Stacy Revere's fourth-grade classes.
