Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world.  So they organized a school.

They adopted an activity curriculum 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 as was very poor in running.  Since he was slow in running, he had to drop out of swimming and stay after school to practice running.  This caused his web feet to be badly worn, so that he was only an average swimming.  But average, ...was quite acceptable, so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch  in his leg muscle, because of much made up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.  He developed a "charlie horse" from overextension, and only got a 'C' in climbing and a 'D' in running.

The eagle was the problem child and disciplined for being a nonconformist.  In climbing classes he beat everyone to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there...

The obvious moral of the story is a simple one - each creature has its own set of capabilities which it will naturally agree, - unless it is expected or forced to fit a mold it doesn't fit.  When that happens, frustration, discouragement and even guilt bring overall mediocrity or complete defeat.  A duck is a duck and ONLY a duck.  It is built to swim, not to run or fly and certainly not to climb.  A squirrel is a squirrel - and ONLY that.  To move it out of it's forte, climbing, and than expect it to swim of fly will drive the squirrel nuts!  The rabbit will win every time unless, of course, the eagle gets hungry.

So relax, cultivate your own capabilities.  Your own style.  Appreciate the members of your family and those around you and who they are, even though there outlook or style may be different from yours.

Rabbits don't fly, Eagles don't swim.  Squirrels don't have feathers.  Stop comparing.  Enjoy being you.  There is plenty of room in the forest.

 ...(Extract from an article published by the Springfield, Oregon Public School Newsletter - 1994 - TALK Newsletter 1994)