Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 July 2010 11:42:59
The School for Animals The rabbit, duck and squirrel all attended the school for animals. They enjoyed a varied curriculum of activities, including sport. The main sports that the school taught were running, climbing and swimming. Each of the animals had a sport that they enjoyed and, as a result, they excelled in that particular activity. The duck loved to swim, he could go for miles without even pausing for breath. The school were planning to enter him into the national swimming championship for animals, as his teacher believed he had a good chance of winning. The squirrel excelled at climbing. She had started with basic clambering at a very young age, and had progressed from saplings, through young trees, to the large oak in the centre of the school grounds. Her climbing instructor had high hopes for the squirrel to embark upon an ambitious climbing career on leaving school. The rabbit was the fastest runner in the school. He had been winning against animals two years his senior after only a few months of training in the 100m sprint. It was widely believed that he could be an Olympic hopeful in the next games. This was before the rules were changed. A new head teacher started at the school who decided that every animal should reach a basic level of competence in all the sporting activities on offer. The instructors were unhappy about this, but the head refused to reconsider. This led to disastrous results for the rabbit, duck and squirrel. Despite being highly proficient at swimming, the duck was very limited in his running ability and had no aptitude for climbing at all. He was therefore required to train harder in running and climbing which led to his webbed feet becoming sore and torn. As a result, his swimming skills suffered and he had to retire from the qualifying heats for the swimming championships due to injury. He did not even get the chance to compete, let alone win. Unfortunately for the squirrel, she was frightened of water. So much time was spent trying to teach her to overcome this fear that she actually became more anxious. Eventually, she refused to attend school because the thought of another day of enforced swimming made her feel physically sick. Squirrel spent the rest of her schooldays dodging the truant officer by climbing trees in her local neighbourhood. She failed the exams required for further development in her intended career. Rabbit managed to get by with the swimming, but it was the climbing that became his downfall – almost literally at one point. Being an incredibly competitive and driven individual, rabbit did not like the fact that climbing was a skill that constantly eluded him. He would spend day after day trying to jump from one branch to another, but his large hind feet were not designed to grip. He became so obsessed with achieving good results in this sport that he began to neglect his running. By the end of his time at the school for animals, he was an above average runner, an average swimmer but still below average at climbing. His Olympic hopes had died on the day he prioritised his weaker skill over his natural talents. On the whole, it can be seen that an ill judged decision by the head teacher had consequences for all of these animals. They had no real choice in where to concentrate their time and energies. Just think how different things may have been if they had been given that freedom.