"Once upon a time the animals decided to do something heroic 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. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, ALL the animals took ALL the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, better than her instructor; but she only made passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since she was slow in running, she had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until her webbed feet were badly worn and she was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing until she developed frustration in the flying class when her teacher made her start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. She also developed a charely horse from overexertion and got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class she beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using her 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 and was valedictorian.
The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their child to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school."