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What is the difference between an elephant and an alligator? The old man wasn't making a question, it was more the way he taught. The way his ancestors have taught since the beginning of time.
"One's a mammal, one's a reptile," replied the student. "one lives on land visits water, one lives in water and visits land. One is a flesh-eater, the other a vegetarian. Neither has natural enemies, only the same enemy - man."
"You missed the essential differences. The one that separates them forever."
"Is this a riddle?"
"Not a riddle, not a mystery. A truth you can learn...if you listen."
"I'm listening."
The baby alligator comes out of the egg a perfectly formed predator. It will not grow, it will only get larger, do you see? It learns nothing. From the moment of its birth, it fights to survive. If it succeeds, if it reaches its full size, it hunts. At birth, it is 9 inches long. In adulthood, perhaps 9 ft. The difference can be measured. As a predator, it increases in competence, in skill. But, no matter what its fate, it will always be what it was born to be."
"I understand."
"Do you? Your work is with children. To work with children, you must know the child. The baby elephant cannot survive on its won. It needs nurturing, it needs protection. Without love, it dies. Depending on how it is raised, the baby elephant grows to be a work animal, a circus performer, a peaceful beast content to live in harmony. But some elephants grow up to be rogues, dangerous to humans. Depending on how they are raised - that is the key. You see the difference now?"
"Yes."
"And so, ask yourself: Are the children of humans alligators, doomed to what they will be from the moment of birth? Or, are they elephants, fated to nothing specific and capable of anything?"
Andrew Vachs, "If You Could Listen to a Child's Soul," Parade, 6/16/1991.
