The Question of the Significance of Studying, Delimiting and Defining the Leisure Time of Children-Elementary School Pupils

The leisure time of children — elementary school pupils is to be understood in the interdependent relationships of dialectical unity and contradiction with the time which is not free for them. The pedagogical study of this set of problems therefore comprises links with the social and educational influences of the family, touches upon a complex of questions connected with compulsory school instruction fat least as a motivation factor in the use of the leisure time) and, above all, is naturally concerned with the wide range of .problems involved in bringing up pupils during their out-of-school activities. A necessary pre-requisite for a deeper study of the above-mentioned problems is delimiting and defining the leisure time of children — elementary school pupils in terms of time, space and content. On the basis of theoretical and field researches into children’s life the author has come to the conclusion that the leisure time of elementary school pupils includes activities connected with: mental and physical recreation; entertainment; voluntary 6elf-education, satisfaction and development of one’s interests; voluntary help rendered to parents and adults; voluntary active participation in social work; development of children’s sociability and friendships outside the family; and time losses connected with these activities. As regards content, leisure time embraces the most varied activities ranging from the highly organized ones to the most spontaneous ones, from activities which do not require very much physical or mental activity to those which do, from activities which are highly valuable culturally to those which are not and only meet the need for relaxation pure and simple, from individual activities carried out for one’s own sake to team activities and those involving a wide range of commitments for the benefit of society. The leisure time of children — elementary school pupils is defined by the author as the time which is left at the children’s disposal to be used relatively freely after they have fulfilled all their school duties and all the other assigned socially necessary tasks and after performing activities resulting from the needs of their biological and social existence.