Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of “A 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 his instructor; but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he became only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so no one worried 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 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 a “charley horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class he beat all the others to the treetop but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal, retarded gopher that could swim exceedingly well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average, beat the system, and was valedictorian.