Write a parable on "The Animal School".
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The Animal School: A Parable
Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something decisive to meet the increasing
complexity of their society. They held a meeting and finally decided to organize a school.
The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, swimming and flying. Since these were the basic
behaviours of most animals, they decided that all the students should take all the subjects.
The duck proved to be excellent at swimming, better in fact, than his teacher. He also did well in
flying. But he proved to be very poor in running. Since he was poor in this subject, he was made
to stay after school to practice it and even had to drop swimming in order to get more time in
which to practice running. He was kept at this poorest subject until his webbed feet were so
badly damaged that he became only average at swimming. But average was acceptable in the
school, so no body worried about that - except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of her class in running, but finally had a nervous breakdown
because of so much make-up time in swimming - a subject she hated.
The squirrel was excellent at climbing until he developed a psychological block in flying class,
when the teacher insisted he start from the ground instead of from the tops of trees. He was kept
at attempting to fly until he became muscle-bound - and received a C in climbing and a D in
running.
The eagle was the school’s worst discipline problem; in climbing class, she beat all of the others
to the top of the tree used for examination purposes in this subject, but she insisted on using her
own method of getting there.
The gophers, of course, stayed out of school and fought the tax levied for education because
digging was not included in the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to the badger and
later joined the groundhogs and eventually started a private school offering alternative
education..
Alas the author is unknown (a student at the University of Toronto)
As you know, a parable is a story which has a moral.
In the story "The Animal School", we have a school where animals with different kinds of skills are forced to study all the subjects.
When they had joined school they were masters at the skills that were necessary for their survival. But by the time they finished schooling, though they had learnt a little bit of everything, they lost the skills they had mastered to survive in the world.
Some of the animals ( gophers - a rat like animal ) though had the courage to resist the uniform and in a sense mindless school educationwhich was being forced upon them, because digging ( an important survival skill for them ) was not included in the curriculum.
That is not to say that they didn't educate their children, because they sent their children to the badger to learn digging and finally started a school offering alternate education.
What then is the moral of this story?
The moral of the story is that forcing children to learn everything without giving due importance to the special skills they already have, is not only counterproductive but seriously damages whatever special talents they might have.
In the long run this kind of education makes them unfit for anything. This a very serious issue. And we need to think seriously about the kind of education that is provided by the prevailing system of schooling.
Hope this helps !