THE YOUNG DRAGON by Dr Audrey Coatesworth
To listen to the story go to
http://www.primaryschoolpoems.com/#/listen-to-the-young-dragon/4535781263
Children love this story, whether they have a 'temper problem' or not. Read without explanation so that the metaphorical story 'speaks for itself'. If a child has a 'temper' problem, read the story several times over a few days or weeks. Gradually it should become understood on the level necessary and can help to change 'temper or uncontrolled' behaviour in a child 3-7 yrs.
The reading is by the author, Dr Audrey Coatesworth .
Story is copyright ACoatesworth 2007
Once upon a time there lived a young dragon. It was a very beautiful dragon with shimmering and brightly coloured scales over all its body and a long tail that swished about. Its wings shone in the sunlight.
(Maybe you could draw a dragon with beautiful, shimmering, coloured scales when you have read the story.)
It had bright eyes that shone in the light. Everyone loved the little dragon. It could make others laugh with its antics. It used to dance around and it could sing songs – in a dragon way, you understand.
The small dragon didn’t see its world quite like everyone else did. But, being very young, it didn’t know or understand how much it was loved. To the small dragon, the world seemed big and sometimes frightening.
You may not know but this can happen to everyone. That’s why children, and even teenagers, need looking after very well until they are grown up. People tend to forget this and so did the dragon world. It can take a long time to grow up; sometimes we are ‘grown up’ in some ways and not in others. That is normal for us and it was much the same for dragons.
This particular little dragon was almost the youngest in the family, but not quite. This was a problem. It didn’t get to do what the older ones did, yet it was not the same as the youngest. Oh dear me, no, not at all – thank you very much!!! It thought it was older than it was – unless, of course, it fell and then it ran to its Mother, like any child would.
But, like human children, it would always want to do everything that the bigger dragons could do. I’m not sure why that should be - but it usually is. Sometimes this was possible but sometimes it was not possible. The little dragon had a lot of courage, but was not as strong or big as the others. It was quite a clever little dragon, but it could not know all that the older ones had learned. This was quite understandable to everyone else, but NOT to the little dragon.
Now, you may wonder why I haven’t given it a name and keep calling it ‘it’! The reason is easy - I don’t know its name. I don’t know if it is a ‘girl’ dragon or a ‘boy dragon, but it really doesn’t matter as the story would be the same.
(If anyone wants to give it a name, then that is fine. There is a message board on this website, so, just let me know.)
Sometimes the little dragon got very tired trying to keep up with the bigger dragons and really wished it was younger again – but of course, that was impossible. It always is! So it tried very hard all the time to learn to do all the things that the older ones did – whatever - so that people would think it was one of them.
I wonder if you can understand if I tell you that it felt it didn’t quite fit in anywhere properly – as though it wasn’t ‘just right’ for any time and anywhere really. There was a reason for this and I will tell you what it was. The little dragon had a problem. There was one thing that sometimes happened to the young dragon that it didn’t like and no one liked either! It didn’t seem to happen to anyone else that it knew. But, try as it may - it couldn’t stop what happened. Would you like to know what that was?
Let me tell you.
Just about everyone knows that when dragons make a loud noise, they blow fire and smoke out of their mouths - don’t they? That is part of being a dragon. I mean - that is one of the ways that you would know it was a dragon, rather than some other creature. Some people think that dragons do this all the time and are dangerous. But that is wrong. They don’t do it all the time and they do not have to be dangerous. But, by using the fire, smoke and noise, they could protect themselves.
The young dragon was able to breathe fire and smoke from its mouth and could make a simply dreadful noise. It was able to do that from just a short time after it was born and is something that comes naturally to any dragon. It could make a much greater noise than you would have ever have expected from a small creature. BUT, BUT, BUT - now here is the problem. It had become quite a BIG problem.
Why? Well, it didn’t understand how to control the noise, smoke and fire, and, oh dear, it happened at all sorts of times.
It could happen when it was playing. Sometimes it was when it was busy, doing more serious activities, like helping to gather food for the family to eat or clearing up the living area after the daytime fun. Young dragons didn’t have computers, ipods, gameboys, books or paints to keep them occupied, and they were expected to help with the normal chores of their daily life – in their dragon way, of course. You could imagine that some part of every day was quite difficult for the little dragon as it happened quite a lot, and, it didn’t know how to stop it.
The little dragon knew that the older dragons and most, even younger than itself, could control their fire, smoke and noise. It did not like itself – which was such a big shame, as it was a kind dragon and would help other young dragons. So, it was always very sorry after it had made a very big noise which had upset the other dragons.
As you can imagine it was very puzzled, and, because it was a very clever little dragon it knew it did not want to make the noise, fire or smoke, but couldn’t stop it. It wondered if it was really not a nice little dragon after all and was sad when it thought this.
Sometimes, all the dragons would have been out and had a lovely time and then – HELP! HELP! The little dragon would be making a loud noise and blowing fire and smoke from its mouth and they would all stand back to get out of the way. At that time, it seemed as though the little dragon’s beautiful scales went dull and its eyes lost their brightness.
‘Oh dear, that has spoiled our lovely time,’ they would say, or sometimes, ’It has spoiled the day for itself now, how sad.’
Some of the young dragons would ask, ’Why does it make so much fuss? We don’t.’
Sometimes the other dragons would be cross with the young dragon because of the noise, fire and smoke coming out of its mouth and tell it to ‘Shut up’. But it couldn’t! Sometimes they would just laugh and that would make even more noise, fire and smoke come from the little dragon.
Poor, little dragon. What could it do?
It could last, for what seemed to everyone, as a very long time. But, the young dragon would gradually stop making the noise, smoke and fire. When it realized how awful its behaviour had been it would go into a corner of a cave or behind a big tree and cry. It would, later, say, ‘Sorry’ to everyone.
‘Why do I do it?’
‘Why can’t I stop?’
‘Am I really stupid?’
‘Am I very bad?’
It would ask itself all these questions, but not find any answers. You see, it didn’t know the answers.
Sometimes it would take a few hours and other times a few days before the little dragon’s scales shone and its eyes sparkled again. It was sad for everyone to see.
There were some things that the little dragon, being a child, did not know.
It did not know –
1) That ALL other dragons, in the whole wide world, knew HOW to make a noise and breath fire and smoke or
2) That ALL have to learn WHEN and WHERE it should do so.
3) It didn’t know that some learn naturally and easily as they live each day, or
4) That others learn by listening to what is said to them, or
5) That some just find learning more difficult than others, or
6) That some get more easily upset and angry, or
7) That some have a much more difficult life than others.
WOW! What a lot there is to learn!
In other words, all children have the same things to learn, but all are different, not better or worse, just different. But, if they don’t learn what they should learn, then their behaviour becomes difficult for themselves and other people. There is quite a lot that someone young doesn’t know?
The little dragon thought it was the only one with a problem. It didn’t know there was something it had to learn or, in fact, could learn. And, so, it didn’t ask for help. Can you imagine that?
One day a wise dragon saw the little dragon breathing fire and smoke and making a lot of noise. She went to the dragon and sat down and waited until the fire, smoke and noise had ended. Then, she said to the little dragon, ‘Do you know why you are making so much noise, fire and smoke?’
The little dragon said, ‘No, it just happens. One minute I am happy and then I am making a lot of noise, fire and smoke. I don’t like it. Sometimes I feel angry and I want to say so, but this happens instead. Sometimes, but not very often, I think I must do it on purpose when people don’t listen to me or if other dragons won’t let me play. But usually I don’t want to do it and I don’t even think about making the noise, or flames or smoke, but it happens. Sometimes I don’t know I am doing it, until, after a while, I, too, hear the loud noise and see the fire and smoke and think, “Oh, no, not again’’. I feel very silly after it has happened.’
The wise dragon gave the little dragon a cuddle, and spoke in a quiet voice,
‘Don’t worry. One day you will be able to use the fire, smoke and noise only when it is necessary. You are a lovely dragon and it is something we all have had to learn.’
That surprised the little dragon and he listened carefully as the wise dragon continued,
‘As with everything else in our lives, we all learn at different times. Some learn quickly and others slowly. It’s just that if you learn something like this later than everyone else, it sort of ‘stands out’ and everyone notices. Can you remember the dragon who couldn’t climb last year when you and your friends could climb easily? I was watching the other day and she’s climbing as well as everyone else now, isn’t she? She just needed a bit of extra help and time. All the others have had to learn to control this fire, smoke and noise too – but, of course, you wouldn’t know that. If they are cross with you when you make a noise or breathe fire and smoke, do you know that it is usually because they think you don’t like them? Or it could be that the noise makes their ears hurt. It is very loud, you know. Try to think a bit more about what makes the fire, smoke and noise happen and about how others will feel. Then you can learn to do something different.’
The young dragon was very puzzled at first but as time went by it began to understand. How? I will tell you when it started to learn ‘a different way’.
One day, two of the Mother dragons had taken a few of the younger dragons for a picnic a short distance from home. It was one of their favourite places and they had all had great fun. They splashed around in a shallow stream and laughed and raced around until their legs were very tired. They played all sorts of games. They chased each other to touch the tip of the tail, jumped up to see who could reach the highest leaves of the trees, explored some small caves, shouting ‘boo’ to make echoes and many other exciting games. I can tell you that it took the Mother dragons all their energy and persuasion to get the smallest ones to walk back home.
That night the little dragon was tired as it was getting late and, as you can tell, it had had a very busy day. The little dragon was told it was time to go to the place in the dragon home where it usually went to sleep. You would have thought that was a good thing to do when it was tired, wouldn’t you? But it saw that the older dragons were going to be able to play a little while longer. It did NOT want to go to sleep as it thought it would miss more fun!!
Suddenly and without warning fire, smoke and noise started to come out of its mouth. The others said, ‘Oh no! Here it goes again.’
But, when the little dragon saw the fire and smoke and heard the awful noise it was making, it decided, for the first time in its life, to do try to do ‘something different’. You see, it remembered the words of the wise dragon.
But what? What could it do? The wise dragon hadn’t told it? It had to find the answer for itself.
So, it didn’t just keep its mouth open and let out the noise, fire and smoke out until it slowly stopped on its own – as it usually did.
No, instead, it held its breath for a moment or two. Then it took a deep breath and did the same again. It shut its eyes and thought about the lovely day and how tired the others had been walking back to the dragon home. Then it thought, ‘They won’t want to hear the noise or see the fire and smoke. I wouldn’t, if I was them, and, I shall wake the youngest dragons if I make so much noise.’
Do you know what started to happen? What do you think? Yes, I’m sure you will have guessed correctly.
The fire and smoke gradually became less and less and the noise got softer and softer. The little dragon gradually shut its mouth and the fire, smoke and noise stopped. Wasn’t that amazing? The young dragon just couldn’t believe it. It had not been able to do that before. ‘Is this what the others have learned ?’ it wondered.
It was, but the little dragon was learning in its own special way. When you do that, the lesson seems to last and you remember it for ever. Did you know that?
The little dragon was very pleased and so it practiced, as well and as much as it could. Soon it became very good at stopping the fire, smoke and the noise - when it did not want it to happen. It learned what would make it start and so was ready to stop the very first sound or puff of smoke.
He learned that sometimes it was -
1) A ‘feeling’ in its stomach when someone said something that upset it, or
2) Sometimes it saw someone ‘pull a face’ and thought ‘they don’t like me’, or
3) Some of the older dragons made fun of it, or
4) They wouldn’t let it play in a game or
5) Sometimes it was just tired, or
6) Sometimes it didn’t want to do as it was told.
7) Sometimes it was angry about something or with someone.
You know the sort of thing. All these different things, or similar, can happen to anyone.
One day, the wise dragon, who had been watching its very good progress, came over to the little dragon and said,
‘Well done, I am very pleased with you. You have shown great skill in learning how to control your fire, smoke and noise.’
Then she continued,
‘But, I want you to remember that being able to make fire, smoke and noise is very important for dragons. Sometimes a dragon SHOULDuse the fire, smoke and noise.’
Can you think when that might be?
The little dragon learned to be glad that is was able to make fire, smoke or a lot of noise. Why? Well, it knew it could keep it safe if any thing tried to hurt it or any one else. The difference now was that it did not use fire, smoke or noise against those whom it loved or the other young dragons it played games with. It didn’t need to do that any more. Instead, it would tell them what it didn’t like.
It thought the world had changed and become a nicer place – but really, it was the young dragon who had changed, wasn’t it?
All the other dragons were very pleased that the little dragon had learned how use the fire, smoke and noise properly. One evening the wise dragon gave the little dragon a gold star!
It was so pleased. Even dragons like ‘gold stars’ when they have done something really well. It stuck it on its chest and it looked lovely as it shone on the bright coloured scales. It helped the little dragon to remember its newly learned lesson.
We all have things to learn. Sometimes they are easy and sometimes we need to make more effort or have more understanding. But, in the end, once we have learned what we need to know, then we make our lives easier for ourselves as well as for everyone else.
In time the young dragon became not only a ‘grown up’ dragon but also a wise dragon and was able to help younger dragons in the same way as it had been helped. I told you, it was a kind dragon, didn’t I?
