Understanding Leisure: Activities, Education, and Historical Perspectives
Leisure Activities
- Watching: TV, computer…
- Activities: Sudoku, reading, skating…
- Attitude: Volunteering, caring for a brother.
Dumazedier’s Definition of Leisure
The author Dumazedier predicted leisure as a set of jobs in which the individual can engage voluntarily, to relax, for fun, to develop information and disinterested training, their voluntary participation, once released from their professional obligations, family, and social issues.
Possible Leisure Activities
Meeting friends, solidarity. At leisure, human communication can be more relaxed and promote friendship.
Characteristics of Leisure Education
- Human Contact: Education was understood in a global sense beyond specific leisure activities.
- Intentionality: Training can be international, but not necessarily education.
Education is a process that enables people to grow, mature, and develop personally.
Leisure activities are meant to be fun and are not always planned.
Difference Between Leisure and Free Time
Leisure activities are to distract and entertain us, while free time is a crucial time for rest and relaxation.
Historical Perspectives of Leisure
- Greece: It was a time to rest and develop.
- Rome: They had little leisure time; relaxing meant continuing to work.
- Renaissance: Included games and parties.
- The French Revolution: Production time became a symbol of power and wealth.
- 17th Century: Leisure was seen as a source of vices and corruption.
Modern Leisure Activities
Going out with friends to walk, party, or use the computer.
The 3D Bumacedial
Relax, have fun, and develop.
Youth Programs
Esplai
Intervening in the daily environment of children and adolescents, with continuous action on weekday evenings and weekend camps.
Holiday Camps
Extraordinary situations, far from the family, in touch with a different medium. Their duration is between 10 and 15 days. The most common activities are games, excursions, trips and discoveries, and workshops.
Summer Camps
They operate daily or in the afternoon, usually for a month, in the same environment, moving children and adolescents.
Camps
Held in tents, with an even more accentuated connection to the natural environment, developing a number of activities and specific techniques.
Routes
For older participants, activities develop more powerful and complex techniques.
Fields of Work
For young people, cohabitation is a voluntary group of young people working selflessly on a project of size and in a climate of respect, collaboration, and desire for knowledge of different cultures.
Passive vs. Active Leisure
Passive Leisure
Activities that require little mental energy, where no energy is reversed, and benefits are obtained. Ex: Entertainment, watching TV.
Active Leisure
Activities that contribute to proper physical and mental health, as the person works and develops skills in performing physical or mental activity.
Attitudes as Educators
Be spontaneous and natural, avoid overprotection, promote independence, be patient, encourage participation, assess and strengthen capacities, anticipate disabilities, adapt situations, and convey confidence.