We’ve all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare countless times since childhood. There’s no need to repeat it here. What I want to discuss is: what did we learn from this story? That slow and steady wins the race, right? But is that really all we learned from this story?
Okay, let’s put it this way: if we were given the choice in life to be either the hare or the tortoise, most of us would choose to be the hare — fast and smart. But yes, we’d try to be a bit smarter than the hare in the story, so we wouldn’t make the mistake of stopping midway. And very few would choose to be the tortoise, who keeps moving steadily and eventually reaches the finish line.
That’s because, in our society, being slow or progressing gradually isn’t considered worthy of praise. The praise always goes to the one who is fast, clever, just like the hare. Being slow is seen as a sign of foolishness. And that’s exactly why we always prioritize reaching the destination, not the journey, and care more about achieving something rather than learning along the way.
So, my point is that no matter how many times we tell our children the story of the tortoise and the hare in schools, praising the slow and steady tortoise, we will always strive to make them fast and clever like the hare.
