I was in a reflective mood last week as I watched our 300 or so new students crowding our corridors and moving from class to class undergoing their orientation programme for the new academic year. I was saying to myself, ?What an extraordinary potential these young men and women represent! These are our future leaders, the true pillars of our economy. If we succeed during the next three years or so in moulding them rightly, they?ll fulfil this potential. But if we fail, what a terrible waste will it turn out to be!?

The weight of the responsibility lies heavily on one?s shoulders and the famous ?Parable of the Eagle? by James Aggrey, read some 30 years ago, came back to mind. Here is an abbreviated version ? in case you?ve never heard of it.

?Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a man found a young eagle. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat chicken feed and to behave as chickens behave. One day, a naturalist, who was passing by, inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in a barnyard with ordinary chickens.

?Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly?, replied the owner. ?It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.? ?Still?, insisted the naturalist, ?it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly??

After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, ?You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.? The eagle, however, was confused; it didn?t know who it was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, it jumped down to be with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle, on the following day, up on the roof of the house, and urged it again, saying, ?You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.? But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and the world and jumped down once more for the chicken feed.

On the third day the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged it again, saying, ?You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.?

The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Still it did not fly. Then the naturalist lifted it straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble, slowly it stretched its wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, it soared away into the heavens.?

As I watched these throngs of youngsters going up and down our building, it dawned upon me that the best we can do, as educators, is to point out to them the various paths that lead to the sun of knowledge and skills. When next they hesitate to stretch their wings and rise towards it, we need to nudge them forward, gently but firmly, patient but persistent. When their heart falters and they think of giving up, we need to be there, ready to assist, encourage and support.

<B>Prof E Charoux

[email protected]</B>