What is a Broad-Based Education?
Some animals in a forest decided to start a school. The students included a bird, a
squirrel, a fish, a dog , a rabbit & a mentally retarded eel. A board was formed and it was
decided that flying, tree climbing, swimming, and burrowing would be part of the
curriculum in order to give a broad-based education. All animals were required to take all
subjects.
The bird was excellent at flying and was getting A's but when it came to burrowing, it kept
breaking its beak and wings and started failing. Pretty soon, it started making C's in flying
and of course in tree climbing and swimming it was getting F's. The squirrel was great at
tree climbing and was getting A's, but was failing in swimming. The fish was the best
swimmer but couldn't get out of the water and got F's in everything else. The dog didn't
join the school, stopped paying taxes and kept fighting with the administration to include
barking as part of the curriculum. The rabbit got A's in burrowing but tree climbing was a
real problem. It kept falling and landing on its head, suffered brain damage, and soon
couldn't even burrow properly and got C's in that too.
The mentally retarded eel, who did everything half as well became the valedictorian of
the class. The board was happy because everybody was getting a broad-based
education.
What a broad-based education really means is that the student is prepared for life,
without losing their areas of specialization or competence.
We are All Gifted with Some Strengths:
The small size of the hummingbird, weighing only a tenth of an ounce, gives it the
flexibility to perform complicated maneuvers, such as beating its wings 75 times a
second. This enables the hummingbird to drink nectar from flowers while hovering but it
cannot soar, glide or hop. The ostrich, at 300 pounds, is the largest bird but it can't fly.
However, its legs are so strong that it can run at up to 50 miles per hour, taking strides of
12--15 feet.
Ignorance
Illusion of knowledge is not education, but ignorance. Foolish people have a strange kind
of confidence which comes only with ignorance.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn to do things the right
way.
--Benjamin Franklin

Taken from 'You Can Win by ShivKhera'