|
Acersi Stories |
Quotes |
Favorite Stories |
Recommended Reading
Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves
and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place
in which to live.
Back to Top
********
It was then that the fox appeared.
" Good morning" said the fox.
" Good morning" -the little prince responded politely although when
he turned around he saw nothing.
" I am right here" the voice said, "under the apple tree."
" Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty
to look at."
" I am a fox", the fox said.
" Come and play with me," proposed the little prince, "I am so unhappy."
" I cannot play with you," the fox said, "I am not tamed."
" AH please excuse me," said the little prince. But after some thought,
he added:
" What does that mean---'tame'?"
" You do not live here," said the fox, "what is it you are looking for?"
" I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean---tame?"
" Men," said the fox, "they have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing.
They also raise chickens.
These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
" No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does
that mean---tame?"
" It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish
ties."
" To establish ties?"
" Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than
a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys.
And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me.
To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be
unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.
. ."
" I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a
flower. . .I think she has tamed me. . ."
" It is possible," said the fox. "On earth one sees all sorts of things."
" Oh but this is not on the earth!" said the little prince.
The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious. "On another planet?"
" Yes"
" Are there hunters on that planet?"
" No"
" Ah that's interesting! Are there chickens?"
" No"
" Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox. But he came back to his idea.
" My life is very monotonous," he said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me.
All chickens are just alike, and all the men are just like. And in consequence,
I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came
to shine on my life.
I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the
others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours
will call me, like music out of my burrow. And then look: you see the
grain-fields down yonder?
I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have
nothing to say to me. And that is sad.
But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that
will be when you have tamed me!
The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you.
And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat. . ."
. First you will sit down at a little distance from me -like that- in
the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you
will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.
But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."
The next day the little prince came back.
" It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the
fox.
" If for example, you came at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at
three o'clock I shall begin to be happy.
I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock,
I shall be worrying and jumping about.
I shall show you how happy I am!
But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my
heart is ready to greet you. . .
One must observe the proper rights. . ."
And what is a right?" asked the little prince.
" Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. They are
what make one day different from other days, one hour different from
other hours. There is a right for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday
they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for
me!
I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced
at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should
never have any vacation at all."
So the little prince tamed the fox.
And when the hour of his departure drew near---
" Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
" It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you
any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you. . ."
" Yes that is so", said the fox.
" But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
" Yes that is so" said the fox.
" Then it has done you no good at all!"
" It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat
fields."
And then he added: "go and look again at the roses.
You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then
come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
" You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing.
No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one.
You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a
hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made a friend, and now he is
unique in all the world."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
" You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not
die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose
looked just like you --the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone
she is more important
than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have
watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because
it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or
three we saved to become butterflies);
because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted,
or even sometimes when she said nothing.
Because she is MY rose."
And he went back to meet the fox.
" Goodbye" he said.
" Goodbye," said the fox.
" And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye." the little prince repeated,
so that he would be sure to remember.
" It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose
so important.
" It is the time I have wasted for my rose-- "said the little prince
so he would be sure to remember.
" Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget
it.
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible
for your rose. . ."
" I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that
he would be sure to remember.
by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Back to Top
********
Back to Top
********
|
