Description
The Blind Man And The Lame Man
(Bulgarian folk tale)
Once upon a time, two people set out on a journey. One was blind, the other lame. They went and just went until they reached the bank of a river. Then the lame man said: A deep river stands in our way. We cannot cross it, as it has no bridge. There is no question of wading through – the water is very deep. I´m limping on one leg, and you have a problem with your eyes. If we tried to wade through it, we would surely drown. The blind man thought. After waiting a little, he asked his companion: Look around carefully, isn´t there a ford somewhere! – Down there, at the bend in the river, there is a ford, but the water there is very swift, you need good legs to cross it. Just take me there, – asked the blind man. The lame man took him by the hand and led him to the ford. When they got there, the blind man said: I have two healthy legs, and you have two healthy eyes. Get on my back and tell me where to step. I will take you across the river. They did so. Helping each other, the blind man and the lame waded through the water in great agreement and continued their journey.
Therapeutic goals: talk about social support, friendship, community, cooperation and mutual respect
Age group: 8-12
Secondary target group: older children and adults too
Form of the work: individual and group
Brief content of the masterpiece:
This short story is about how a blind man and a lame man help each other. They complement each other’s shortcomings, so together they form a stronger team and can even cross a huge river.
Description of the possibilities of professional pedagogical/therapeutic work:
We can use this tale also in individual and group works. The goal is to talk about friendship and social support.
- Tune-up round with association cards: How did you arrive at today’s event? How are you? Today we will talk about cooperation and mutual support.
- Reading with an attention test: clap your hands when you hear the word foot!
- Discussion based on questions:
What did you like best about the story?
How did the two actors work together?
Are you used to working with others?
- Final round: What are you taking home from today? What did you like about today’s story?
The card of the recommended work according to the mentioned literary source was created by:
Kürthy Anna, Workplace: Zichy Miklós Primary School in Zsámbék, Date last updated: Feb 9th 2023
Recommended citation procedure:
Kürthy Anna. 2022. Recommended professional procedure to the work with literary masterpiece of The blind and the lame. In Kotrbová, K. et al: Biblioterapia.sk. Bratislava: PRO SKIZP – Association to support the development of the Slovak Chamber of Clinical Physics, Laboratory Diagnosticians, Language Speech Therapists and Therapeutic Pedagogues, 2023. ISBN 978-80-974667-0-1 Available on: https://www.biblioterapia.sk/en/publikacia/reccomended-procedure-to-literary-masterpiece-the-blind-and-the-lame/
This article was created thanks to the support of the the program of the European Union Erasmus+, Key action 2 – Cooperation among organizations and institutions, KA210 – Small-scale partnerships for cooperation in the field of vocational education and training. Project title „Prototype of the on-line study tool for bibliotherapy”, project number 2022-1-SK01-KA210-VET-000082483. It represents the opinion of the author only and European Commission is not responsible for any use of the informations contained therein.
