Animal School Story
Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something definite to meet the problems
of a "new world". So they decide
to organize a new school. They adopted a curriculum consisting of running, swimming,
climbing, and flying. To make
it easier to administer the curriculum and to graduate "well-rounded" young animals, all the
animals took all the subjects
offered.
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, better than his instructor; but he made only
passing grades in flying and was
very poor in running. Since he was a slow runner, he had to stay after school and also drop
swimming in order to practice
running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in
swimming. But average was
acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that, except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because
of so much tedious work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class
where his teacher made him start
from the ground instead of from the treetop which he was good at. He also developed muscle
cramps from overexertion
and eventually got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class he beat
all the others to the top of the
tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there. This was not acceptable to the school
system. He spent so much
time in detention that he missed most of his running classes altogether (which seemed to be
OK with the eagle). He
dropped out of school and became a fisherman. He eventually opened an extremely successful
seafood restaurant, parleyed
it into an international chain and today has a private jet and a 2 billion dollar home in
the very prestigious Cliff-Side
Estates. Many in the school system now brag that they were once Mr. B.G. Eagle’s home room
teacher.
The prairie dog stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration
would not add digging and burrowing
to the curriculum. They apprenticed their child to a badger, and later joined the groundhogs
and gophers to start a
successful prairie school in digging and burrowing.
Close
