The School for Animals

The School for Animals An old story tells of the creation of a school for the animals. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects: flying, swimming, climbing, and running. Among the students were a duck, a flying squirrel, a fox, and an elephant. These four were highly motivated, and wanted to get good grades, so they all tried very hard.
The duck did fantastically well in swimming and flying, but he lagged behind his classmates in climbing and running, so focused special attention on those two subjects. However, his feet became so sore from trying to run and his wings were so bedraggled from trying to climb that by the end of the year he not only failed both those subjects, but made C’s in swimming and flying, which had once been his two best subjects.

At the beginning of the school year, the squirrel was first in his class in climbing and running and was second only to the duck at flying. But as the months wore on, he missed so much school from catching pneumonia in his swimming class that he failed everything.

To make matters even worse, because the squirrel constantly squirmed and chattered in class, and had difficulty paying attention, he was diagnosed with a learning disorder. The squirrel eventually was placed in remedial classes and had to be medicated in order to continue with his school work.

The fox was a natural in his running class and scored well in climbing and swimming, but became so frustrated at his inability to get good grades in flying that he began assaulting his classmates. He even tried to eat the duck. His behavior was so disruptive he was expelled from school. He fell in with a rough crowd and eventually wound up in a center for animal delinquents.

The elephant, meanwhile, developed low self-esteem because he couldn’t do well in any of the subjects. When he sank into clinical depression, his therapist persuaded him to try a different school that focused on subjects such as lifting and carrying. The elephant was disappointed, because careers in lifting and carrying were not as prestigious as careers in flying, swimming, climbing, or running. Even though he always felt inferior, he managed to make a decent living and support his family.

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Skemaholics Anonymous to add comments!

Join Skemaholics Anonymous

Comment by AnGella on November 13, 2009 at 2:45pm: Hahaha, I guess there is something youare good at at any age.

Comment by Barbara Mc on November 13, 2009 at 2:42pm: LOL, How old do you have to be to figure out what you're good at?

Comment by AnGella on November 13, 2009 at 10:02am: Those people are good at something too... :D

Comment by Diamond on November 13, 2009 at 9:59am: LoL Yeah I figured that, but usually stories like this says it at the end lol so I was like where's the moral? People might think the moral is we're not all meant to climb, swim, fly, and run LOL

Comment by AnGella on November 13, 2009 at 9:55am: LoL, the moral to the story is that we each have a gift. We may not ace everything, but there is something special about us all, and sometimes when we try to be great at other things it takes away from our true calling. :)

Comment by Diamond on November 13, 2009 at 9:42am: I feel like the moral of the story is missing LOL but I definitely get it anyway. Awww the poor duck almost got eaten and the squirrel caught pneumonia lol that's too funny. I visualized the poor thing trying to swim.

RSS

Welcome to
Skemaholics Anonymous

Sign Up
or Sign In