Tag Archives: bullies

The action spins in a different direction

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Luan's HSIt’s interesting the way my stories seem to evolve and morph as I write and go through revision.  When I first wrote The Littlest Dragon and the Princess I knew that there was a neighboring Prince who had come to collect a debt from a loan that was made to the Princess’ grandfather.   The scene was rather dry, unemotional and woody.  As I rewrote Prince Luan’s arrival the scene exploded; much more was revealed about the prince’s character.  The original appearance of a couple of messengers turned into a showy procession of drummers and mounted soldiers followed by the Prince on a very large horse.  It became a grand gaudy procession; Luan had grown into a very arrogant and bossy character.

After being lead to the council’s chambers by the Princess and the Littlest Dragon he became rude, disrespectful and demanding.  When the council had verified the loan document was authentic they were devastated; they asked for more time to repay the money.  At this point to my amazement Luan’s character came alive and took over the scene from me; I could barely write fast enough to keep up with the action.  I was amazed as the scene continued to build.  Refusing their plea for more time Luan’s rant grew as he shouted at the Emperor and the Council but I was flabbergasted as he ended his demands he spat on the floor in front of the Emperor.  Finishing his tirade he turned and marched out of the council chamber.  As he reached the door he stopped, turned around and glared at the Emperor and the Council; again he spat on the floor.  What a pig!

Prince Luan is more than a condescending bully.  What makes his character so interesting is that he is so spoiled and self-absorbed; he hasn’t a drop of compassion or human decency.  The neat aspect of his change in character is that as we continue with the story we begin to hate him and long for the predicament to be turned around.  Fortunately later in the story the Princess takes control, turns the tables on Prince Luan and he is humiliated.

How to deal with classroom bulling

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There seems to be numerous items in the news each week about the trials our young go through at school.  One of the most disturbing is when an unfortunate youngster is picked on, worst still when they are bullied.  In this story The Littlest Dragon is teased about his height because he is about the size of a chipmunk and most of the other dragons were as big as horses.

Dragons in this society were supposed to be symbols of power and respect and like many different societies that lived in this area size mattered.  If you were big you seemed more important than others.

During the first year of The Littlest Dragon’s schooling some of the other dragons in his class begin to tease him about how small he is, they even try to convince him that he is so small that he is a nobody.  At the end of a rather grueling week instead of going home he retreats to the high mountaintops to be by himself and think.  It is in this area that he encounters one of the oldest dragons he has ever seen.  He is about the size of a dog.

The Old Dragon Sage listens patiently about how the other classmates have teased The Littlest Dragon.  He then gives him advise about how to create a situation that would reduce the amount of teasing and bulling.

Most of the classroom teasing and bulling is decreased if the individual being bullies doesn’t respond.  The more kids see that their target is uncomfortable and bothered with the verbal assaults the more they continue but if the target doesn’t react the bullies soon move on to other classmates who will become upset with the mean teasing.

Problems with classmates

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Rarely does anyone grow up without encountering problems with classmates in some form or another.  Encounters with bullies or bullying at school are a common occurrence in childhood. Addressing this issue wasn’t my initial purpose in writing this book but it became the background story for the main story about Chinese dragon mythology and the discovery of silk.

I realized that while I desired to present an entertaining story for kids  I also desired to offer beneficial insights on how to build a positive, happy life.  I wanted a story that suggested ways for kids to build strong self-esteem.

I firmly believe that we all have the opportunity to live positive, happy lives but, quite often, we can’t seem to find our way because of bad habits and low self-esteem we’ve developed early in our childhood.   As a consequence, we often cultivate states of mind that are less than joyous.  We tend to believe that the decisions we make in response to life’s challenges are ultimately out of our control.  As adults, many of us find it difficult to discard unresourceful approaches to responding to life’s challenges.  I believe it advantageous to start teaching our young children resourceful approaches to responding to the challenges they encounter at school and in their environment in general so that by the time they reach adulthood they have established the foundation for a positive, happy life.  The goal is learning to turn negatives into positives.

Sadly there will always be individuals who pick on or bully those around them when the teacher’s back is turned but the incident can be used to turn the child’s attention in a positive way.  So, for example, instead of focusing on feelings of being hurt and alienated due to the emotional incident, direct the conversation toward what type of person does the child want to be.  Stressing the thoughts of not wanting to be mean to others like the bully.  Encourage the child to take control of the situation by taking an objective position.  One-way is to evaluate the situation from the outside as if the child was a bystander watching the incident.

In the story The Littlest Dragon and the Princess, the littlest dragon faces a great deal of teasing from his classmates and especially the class bully.  His classmates try to convince him that he is worthless because he is so very small.  He is so perplexed after weeks and months of taunting that he wanders high into the mountains after school one day to think and try to resolve his predicament.  It is in this wilderness that he meets an Old Dragon Sage who suggests alternate responses to these conventional situations. The Old Dragon Sages begins to teach the Littlest Dragon about The Twelve Great Riches of Life, which begin with having a positive mental attitude. This is a positive approach to thinking that starts by learning not to look at beliefs about ourselves in terms of whether they are true or false but rather whether or not they are resourceful.  The Old Dragon Sage encourages The Littlest Dragon to discard any beliefs that are not helpful to him.

The main objective of this part of the story is to present a positive learning situation on which kids can reflect and incorporate positive approaches into their lives that help them learn how to take control and not allow external situations to create negative beliefs about themselves.   Importantly, this teaches children to be proactive in their lives rather than victims.