动物学校

谁扼杀了鸭子的游泳天赋？为什么兔子会崩溃？为什么第一个到达树顶的鹰得不到老师的表扬？为什么普普通通的鳗鱼的成绩是班级里最高的……如果我们不想成为没法跑的狮子、不能飞翔的老鹰、被淹死的松鼠和平庸的鸭子，就应该受到个性化的，而不是模式化的教育。

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic¹ to meet the problems of “a new world”. So they organized a school.

They adopted an activity curriculum² 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 webbed³ 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 breakdown⁴because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel⁵was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration⁶in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse⁷” from overexertion⁸ and then got a “C” in climbing and a “D” in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined⁹ 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 abnormal¹⁰ eel¹¹ that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb and fly a little, had the highest average and was valedictorian¹².

The prairie dogs¹³ stayed out of school and fought the tax levy¹⁴ because the administration would not add digging and burrowing¹⁵ to the curriculum. They apprenticed¹⁶ their children to a badger¹⁷ and later joined the groundhogs¹⁸ and gophers¹⁹ to start a successful private school.

Does this fable have a moral?

从前，动物们决定必须要做一点儿有英雄气概的事情来迎接“未来世界”的各种挑战，所以他们成立了一所学校。

他们设置了一些活动课，包括跑步、攀登、游泳和飞翔。为了便于实施课程，所有动物都参加了每一项教学项目。

鸭子在游泳方面很擅长，甚至比他的教练还要棒，但是他在飞翔方面却只能勉强及格，在跑步方面就更糟了。既然跑步是弱项，他就不得不放学后留在学校里练习跑步，连游泳也不得不放弃了。这样一直持续到他把脚丫子磨烂了为止，可是他的游泳成绩却落到了中等水平。不过中等水平在学校里是可以接受的，所以除了鸭子之外没有人觉得这件事有什么可担心的。

在跑步项目上，兔子刚开始在班里可是名列前茅，可是他后来因为大量的游泳补习弄了个神经衰弱。

松鼠原来是个攀登高手，直到他在飞翔课上才知道挫折是什么滋味。老师让他从地上腾空而起，而不能像以前那样从树顶上往下跳。由于过分劳累，它肌肉痉挛，所以在攀登项目上只拿了个“C”，跑步项目也只得了个“D”。

雄鹰是个问题小孩，所以被严格管教。在爬树课上他力挫群雄，首先到达树尖，但是他坚持用自己的方式飞到顶端。

这样到了学年结束时，一条奇特的鳗鱼，游泳成绩相当好，同时还能做一些跑步、攀登和飞翔的动作。他的平均分数最高，也因此作为毕业生代表上台致了告别辞。

由于政府不同意将挖坑和掘洞纳入教学课程，草原土拨鼠拒绝入校，同时还反对纳税。他们让自己的孩子拜獾为师，之后又与美国土拨鼠以及囊地鼠一起成功地创办了一家私立学校。

这则寓言有教益吗？