(CZ) Volný čas žiaka ako pedagogický problém
(EN) Pupils’ Leisure Time as a Pedagogical Problem

In order to delimit the extent and determine the character of children’s leisure time activities as accurately as possible, it is necessary to proceed from the contradiction of leisure and work; in the case of pupils ≫work≪ is equivalent to ≫learning activities≪. From this point of view, the daytime of a pupil, while awake, may be divided into two basic parts, i.e. the part of the day spent at school and the part classroom work. The out-of-school time cannot be considered as the pupils’ leisure time as long as a considerable part of it is filled with certain necessary activities which do not have the character of leisure time activities, such as: homework and preparation for classes, morning and evening toilet, taking meals, time spent in going to and from school, helping parents and other similar activities as the case may be. In other words, the out-of-school time is a quantity superior to leisure time, whose delimitations are essentially determined by the above-mentioned necessary activities, no matter whether they recur at daily or weekly intervals. Thus the pupil’s leisure time in both daily and weekly programmes may be considered as equivalent to that part of the day which is left after deducting the time used up by the necessary activities. The growing demands of a developed socialist society in the period of scientific, technological and social progress necessitate a certain amount of guidance in the children’s choice of leisure time activities, and this concerns the choice of both the kind and the quality of the activities. The children’s choice of leisure time activities can be indirectly guided by creating attractive material and personal conditions for the activities resulting from the educational objectives and tasks of society as a whole. In a socialist society there are no contradictory efforts in winning young people for socially desirable activities in their leisure time as is the case in the class society under capitalism. Thus a socialist society has suitable conditions as well as pre-requisites for satisfying a wide range of hobby activities of young people of compulsory school age without infringing the basic principle of leisure time activities, i. e. a person’s own, voluntary choice of the activities.