The Education Race

Once upon a time the Lion decided to prove that the big cats were the superior beings and that, as their ruler, he was indeed the king of the jungle.
 
Obviously a race was called for as this would clearly show who was the winner and obviously it should be a sprint race as that’s what big cats were best at.
 
So a sprint race was organised and lo and behold the cats won the race between them. One or two of the other animals were quite fast too so they were also regarded as superior just not quite as superior as the big cats though.
 
The race was such a success that the Lion decided to hold the race every year and to give special training in a fast school to those animals who came in as winners. This special training must have helped because the fastest animals kept winning the race every single year.
 
Eventually the rest of the animals started to complain so the King decided to allow this special training to be spread to the rest of the animals even though he knew it wouldn’t make a difference.
 
And he was right.
 
Even after the special extra training, the slow animals still couldn’t beat the fast animals but they did start to get a bit closer each year.
 
Some of these slow animals suggested that perhaps they could race over a greater distance or have a different type of contest but the Lion said that their idea was ridiculous.
 
After all, why change a system which had worked so well for years and still produced such good results?
 
The number of race winners from the fast school proved that giving fast animals the extra training was the right thing to do and it had also been proved that giving the same training to the slower animals didn’t have the same effect as they had never produced a race winner.
 
And so each year, the race is held and each year the fastest animals are taken into the fast school for the special training so that they can keep winning the sprint.
 
The Lion is still king of the jungle and the cats are still the superior beings and all is still right with the world and they continue to live happily ever after.