TheBanyanTree: School Ducks

[NancyIee at aol.com]

A friend of mine was, before she retired, a teacher in a smallish town. The 
school was shaped so that there was a courtyard in the middle, with fountain, 
walking area, and minimul landscaping. However, one Spring,my friend told me,  
a female duck decided to make the courtyard her family home, and therein, 
hatched and tended a clutch of ducklings.  The entire process was watched and 
monitored by every student through the Spring, studied as the class science 
curiculum, and enjoyed by everyone in that school environment.

In time, the baby ducklings grew and thrived, and the mother duck decided it 
was time to take her little family out into the world, meaning, to the town 
lake, some four blocks away. It meant going down the town's streets and across 
three busy intersections.  But, the mother duck would not be deterred. she 
started out that morning, her little brood following her, marching out of the 
school courtyard and down the sidewalk.

Then, as the ducks neared the first intersection, the fourth grade school 
crossing guards, still on duty as children walked to school, lifted their flags 
and stopped the traffic until mother and ducklngs had safely crossed. Then, 
though the school bell had rung, and classes began, the crossing guards followed 
the clan of ducks their entire journey, stopping traffic at each intersection, 
and down to the shore of the lake.

The mother duck, unconcerned by all the commotion, steadfastly urged her 
ducklings into the water, and so they ventured out across the town's lake, where 
they enjoyed a rich and happy Summer, and all flew away in the Fall.


NancyLee