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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (4440)	11/14/1997 11:45:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Last night, we attended the National Honor Society ceremony with CW. CW has a high 90's GPA but he won't be valedictorian by a long shot, and one of the reasons is that he has taken a full load of AP and Honors courses. The current valedictorian (GPA around 102) told him that she carefully took Honors in only the subjects in which she excelled and took courses she could ace easily for the rest. I am amazed at the stories he tells us about how kids are so concerned with manipulating the system that the entire concept and purpose of education seems completely lost. And I think of CW failing an Algebra test because if a problem isn't done the way the teacher believes it should be, then it's wrong, regardless if the steps used were taught to him last year by another teacher. At the reception afterward, a mother was saying how her child had a brilliant Science Project idea but that the teacher wouldn't let him do it, because it didn't fit the requirement that the projects in her class had to be in the category of Biology; this happened to us two years ago and consequently CW, who had wanted to do his in computers, lost all interest, threw something together really bad, and barely passed. LAst year, when allowed to do what he cares about and excels in-computers- he won top honors at State. There was a lot of talk about being role models and leaders and sharing and community service in the ceremony. Anyway-today this came in the Chicken Soup for the Soul daily message and it made me think of all those things and of you with your young ones just starting, and our talks about the purpose and sphere of education. The Animal School 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 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 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 "charlie 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 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 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 children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school. Does this fable have a moral?