Finding Leisure

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Definition

John Dattilo, university professor, researcher, and noted author of many works on leisure education, states: "Leisure education provides individuals the opportunity to enhance the quality of their lives in leisure; understand opportunities, potentials, and challenges in leisure; understand the impact of leisure on the quality of their lives; and gain knowledge, skills, and appreciation enabling broad leisure skills." (Inclusive Leisure Services: Responding to the Rights of People with Disabilities, 2nd Ed., 2002, State College, PA: Venture Publishing, p. 211)

Leisure Education is.

• A total movement to enable individuals to enhance the quality of their lives in leisure;
• A process to enable individuals to identify and clarify their leisure values, attitudes, and goals;
• An approach to enable individuals to be self-determining, self-sufficient, and proactive in relation to their lives in leisure;
• Deciding for oneself what place leisure has in one's own life;
• Coming to know oneself in relation to leisure;
• Relating one's own needs, values, and capabilities to leisure and leisure experiences;
• Increasing the individual's options for satisfying quality experiences in leisure;
• A process whereby individuals determine their own leisure behavior and evaluate the long- and short-range outcomes of their behavior in relation to their (leisure) goals;
• Developing the potential of individuals to enhance the quality of their own lives in leisure;
• A lifelong, continuous process encompassing kindergarten to retirement years;
• A movement in which a multiplicity of disciplines and service systems have a role and responsibility.

Leisure Education is now receiving increasing attention within schools and community recreation settings. It is primarily focused upon children who are grade school age and older. For younger children, leisure education would expose the developing child to an array of play experiences. Parents, teachers, aides, and various specialists, would work together to introduce the child to a variety of age appropriate leisure materials, skills, and behaviors.

Leisure Education content areas include: awareness, skills learning and rehearsal and self-determination.

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