Leisure Education

Leisure Education

Introduction

Importance of Leisure education cannot be ignored since it plays an important role in any individual's life by teaching him skills and methods to develop successful lifelong behavior and interpersonal skills. According to Centre for Mental Health Services, one in every 20 young people witness a problem that will affect their ability to perform and learn.When people talk about leisure, sports is the very first thing that comes to their mind (Center for Mental Health Services, 1997). Even in school colleges the thing that tops the list of extracurricular activities for students is sports. According to Siedentop Sports education is related to an educationally rich experiences in sports and constitute an important part of Leisure Education. This education is given in the context of physical education. Additionally it is taught in the form of less but detailed units. The main reason behind teaching in terms of less units is that each unit is dealt with in detail. Sports education is developed on the basis of less is more. Each unit is taught in detail to develop better understanding of the sports in question. The methodology of teaching undertaken encourages two way communication and high involvement of students. In contrast to the typical teaching methods that mostly rely on one way instructions and directions of the teacher, sports education is based on a combination of teacher's directions, peer teaching and working in small groups. In this way it is easier for the students to learn and experiment with the idea taught in the class. On the other hand physical education mostly rely on directional and instructional methodology of teaching involving more units and multiple activities which makes it difficult for students to grasp and understand the units and activities involved (Siedentop, 1998).

Discussion

Leisure education is a more broader concept and terminology that covers any extra curricular activity may it be music, arts and crafts, painting, sports, reading books etc. one type of leisure activity which is of interest to one person might be useless for another person who does not feel the same. Additionally, those times are not far when things will become automated and robotic and people will have more time on their hands to invest in healthy hobbies and activities of their personal choice. Therefore, teaching people how to spend their time productively and employ leisure activity for personal and community development is very important. That is where leisure education become important and can play an important role (Silvan & Ruskin, 2000, pp. 15).

Plato states that “you can learn more from a person in an hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation” (Sellick, 2002, pp. 2). This statement show the significance and importance of leisure education in the current situation. According to a report arount 40 percent of people in their youth spend their time without any supervision and take it for granted rather than spending it in productive and useful activities (Sellick, 2002, pp. 2). According to research development of productive leisure activities help ...