Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something to meet the problems of the ‘new-world’ so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying and, to make it easier to administer, all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, better in fact, than the instructor and made passing grades in flying, but he was poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming to practice running.
This was kept up until his webfeet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup 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 up, instead of from the treetop down. He also developed Charlie horses from overexertion and then got “C” in climbing and “D” in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In climbing class, he beat all others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average. Journal of Handicapped Children, Issue 1970.