Animal School

Once upon a time the animals had a school. They had four subjects - running, climbing, swimming, and flying - and all animals took all subjects.

The duck was good at swimming, better than the teacher, in fact. He made passing grades in running and flying, but he was almost hopeless at climbing. So they made him drop swimming to practice more climbing. Soon he was only average in swimming. But average is okay, and nobody worried about it much - except the duck.

The eagle was considered a troublemaker. In climbing class he beat everyone to the top of the tree, but he had his own way of getting there, which was against the rules. He always had to stay after school and write "Cheating is Wrong" five hundred times. This kept him from soaring, which he loved. But schoolwork comes first.

The bear flunked because they said he was lazy, especially in the winter. His best time was summer, but school wasn't open then.

The penguin never went to school because he couldn't leave home, and they wouldn't start a school out where he lived.

The zebra played hooky - a lot. The ponies made fun of his stripes, and this made him very sad.

The kangaroo started out at the top of his running class, but got discouraged trying to run on all fours like the other kids.

The fish quit school because he was bored. To him, all four subjects were the same, but nobody understood that. They had never been a fish.

The squirrel got A's in climbing, but the teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. His legs got so sore practicing take-offs that he began to get C's and D's in running.

But the bee was the biggest problem of all, so the teacher sent him to Dr. Owl for testing. Dr. Owl said that the bee's wings were just too small for flying, and besides, they were in the wrong place. But the bee never saw Dr. Owl's report, so he just went ahead and flew anyway.

This original parable was written in the 1940's by George H. Reavis,
Assistant Superintendant of Schools in Cincinnatti, Ohio.