Tag Archives: Cow dung

Child vs. Experts

Posted on by
29
There’s the story of little Johnny who was mentally retarded, so they say.  But he wasn’t.  
Johnny goes to school for special needs children.  In his modeling class, he took a piece of putty and started modeling it.  He takes a little lump and goes to a corner of the room and plays with it.  
The teacher comes up to him and says:
“Hi, Johnny.” 
“Hi” 
“What’s that you’ve got in your hand?”
“This is a lump of cow dung.”   
“What are you making out of it?”
“I’m making a teacher.” 
The teacher thought Johnny is regressing.  So she calls out to the principal and told her that Johnny has regressed. 
So the principal goes up to Johnny and says:
“Hi, Johnny.”
“Hi.”
“What do you have in your hand?”
“A lump of cow dung.”
“What are you making out of it?”
“A principal.” 
The principal thinks that this is a case for the school psychologist.  
The psychologist is a clever guy.  He goes up and to Johnny and says
“Hi, Johnny.”
“Hi”
“I know what you’ve got in your hand.”
“What?”
“A lump of cow dung.”
“Right.”
“I know what you’re making out of it.”
“What?”
“You are making a psychologist.”
“Wrong.  Not enough cow dung!” 
And they called him mentally retarded. 
Excerpt from “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello