Eighth-grade students at Lehighton Area Middle School entered history class Tuesday to a room without desks and chairs.

No, it wasn't a first day of school prank or a delayed shipment of furniture following a summerlong renovation project.Instead, teacher Erica Pagotto was starting the 2016-17 school year off with an important lesson."How do you plan on earning your chairs?" she asked students.Answers ranged from studying hard and doing well on tasks to respecting teachers.All good answers, but not the one Pagotto was looking for."You don't have to earn them, because our veterans have already earned them for you through their service to our country," Pagotto said.Following her words, three veterans carried desks into the room as students gave them a round of applause.Pagotto invited the veterans, all from Carbon County, as a way for students to see who paved the way for many of their freedoms."Our veterans risked their lives so that we can have this free public education," she said. "Students get to come sit in these desks and learn. It's now their job to take their work seriously."Among the veterans helping to get the message across was Harry J. Wynn III.Wynn, who served in the U.S. Navy, said he views eighth-graders as the seniors of the middle school, meaning they set an example for the rest of the building."I hope what we get across to them is the importance of character, integrity, volunteerism and doing things the right way."Being back in the middle school is always special for David Bryfogle, who was attending high school in the same building in 1969 when he quit to join the service.Bryfogle was 17 when he entered the Navy in 1970. He just received a diploma from Lehighton in January."I was on the only American Navy ship in the Persian Gulf in 1972," he told students. "I touched ground in the Middle East and 14 different countries in Africa."On Tuesday, Henry Desrosiers, director of the Office of Veterans Affairs in Carbon County, said he wanted to make sure students understood that everything in life is earned."Nothing is given to you and nothing is guaranteed," he said. "Veterans sacrificed time and effort to make this a better country."