Educating for Leisure

BY DR. G. S. KRISHNAYYA, M.A., Ph.D. (Columbia)

(Teacher’s College, Klhapur)

A man is to a very large extent what he is during his leisure time. When he is off his guard, when he is free to do just what he likes, when he is not being watched, driven, checked he expresses his real self. For a true index to character one to look at a man’s likes and dislikes, his preferences and abhorrences, exhibited when he is monarch of his time, thought and action. In these days when youth the world over is demanding freedom for self-expression and self-realization, it is a matter for concern as to whether the ‘self’ is the kind that is safe for expression and whether it deserves to be realized.

There is another aspect of leisure which is worth considering. What a man does during his leisure is of consequence to himself and to others. When he is on duty he is protected even against himself, and is comparatively harmless so far as others are concerned. But when he is set free, that is the time fraught with possibilities of great good or evil. If his tastes are low, if his likes are vulgar, if his interests are narrow, he is not likely to benefit himself or others by the use he makes of leisure. On the other hand, if he has lofty ideals, noble passions and healthy avocations, he is certain to make a genuine contribution to the increase of human happiness.

Nor is that all. Just as there are hours of ease to relieve days of toil, so there are years of leisure awaiting a life of labour, and if persons have to be prepared for the proper dispossal of their free time, it is not less important that they should be adequately equipped for the satisfactory utilization of their retirement. Has it not been found that men who have successful careers and held positions of responsibility often go to pieces within a year after being pensioned? They have sustaining interests. Has it not been found that women whose children have been married and settled are often miserable? They have no absorbing occupations. It was easier far to be busy, pestered, overworked!

The problem, then, is to ensure that young people and old will make such use of their leisure that it will mean benefit to others, improvement to themselves and pleasure to all. Can we be sure that our citizens will be discerning enough to find the excellence in all art, music and literature? Have we the guarantee that they will not merely be aware of what constitutes true, the good and the beautiful, but that they will so value and desire it as to be willing to pay the price for it and put themselves in the pursuit of it? Should we not ensure that men and women know how to escape from excesses of all kinds and from the demoralizing vulgarities of civilized amusement to the grand and varied expressions of the human spirit?

"Our children require to be trained to feel pleasure and pain at the right things," said Plato, who evidently understood that children will tend to repeat those actions which give them satisfaction, and desist from those which cause them annoyance. It is when children are in school, when they are forming inclinations, that this ideal can be achieved. The school to see that things which are worth while are so presented that children will be attracted to them, and that evil is so dealt with that aversion to it is the result. As the twig is, so is the branch.

Besides, children are in school not merely during the impressionable period of their lives but when the restless, surging emotions of adolescence are seeking an outlet, and the eager quest after new experience is demanding satisfaction. Surely something should be done to help the introvert, day-dreaming pupils in their teens to find their feet and reality. The school is under obligation to study the needs of its clientele and to strive to supply them. How can this be done better than by opening up before the adolescent new and attractive vistas, and inviting him to appropriate some part of the glorious heritage of Man that is his birthright?

Again, the school is concerned with the future as well as the present of the pupil. That means that if the citizen tomorrow are to live full, rich, varied lives, and know how to get the best out of their leisure, they must be taken in hand today. If age is to be rescued from being dry, drab, and dreary, and become the active, useful, radiant thing it should be, a host of ‘interest pockets’ or ‘interest pegs’ must be provided in youth. In no other way can interests that are absorbing, lasting and many-sided be cultivated. And as there is no other social institution willing or competent to discharge this obligation, the school has to function here as elsewhere as the residuary legatee to such functions.

There may be some who feel that storing up interests against hours of leisure or years of ease is not so important as storing up skill and information likely some day to bring in rupees, annas and pies. No doubt the school has to keep its feet firmly on the ground and concern itself with matters of bred and butter. But it must not be forgotten that children have a mental and a social appetite not less real than the physical one. "Man shall not live by bread alone," said the Master. The short-sighted utilitarian would feed the body and starve the spirit. That is why there are so many with ungirt loins and unlit lamps straggling about. If schooling is to result in the building up of the whole physical, moral, aesthetic and intellectual life of the pupils, it cannot fail to include the stimulation in them of the ability to utilize the common means of pleasurable relaxation and recreation. The school must prepare its pupils not merely for a livelihood but for life.

There are two outstanding things which the school can do to teach its pupils the proper use of leisure: (1) to set up standards and develop tastes which will help to determine the choice of proper forms of recreation, and (2) to develop habits and interests which will continue to provide enjoyment in leisure hours in later life. To realize these objects the school canand should press into service all its activities, curricular and extra-curricular.

If the subjects of the ordinary curriculum were treated as they should be, pupils would not only learn them but love them. Once that stage has been reached there can be no complaint of indifference and inattention. More than that, what they have learnt to love they will love to learn, and this will linger–linger with them through life. It must be the business of the teacher to see that children associate pleasure and not pain with the subjects which he teaches, for, quite often, definite disgust and permanent repulsion have resulted from the teacher’s handling of otherwise fascinating subjects; and, by their treatment of the subject, teachers can either create or destroy the pupil’s interest.

Courses in language and literature should introduce pupils to one of the most accessible means of recreation, and enable them to find genuine pleasure and obvious profit. A child can be compelled to read, but, when the compulsion is withdrawn, he will cease to read. So, the task is not only teaching children how to read, but making them love to read. The appetite for reading grows with what it feeds on, and so care must be taken to provide it with a good and plentiful diet. In the first place, we cannot expect children to love materials which are not worth loving. Secondly, children will not love that for which the teacher does not evidence genuine love and enthusiasm himself.

The social studies–history, geography and civics–should reveal lines of interest which can give life-long satisfaction. What more interesting reading can there be than the story of mankind, its loves and its hates, its manners and morals, its ideals and achievements? The story of the earth as man’s home, the Way he found it, what he has done with it, what it has done for him, and the relation of cause and effect, are not less thrilling. History and geography reduced to terms in which experiences them in everyday life, and the management of one’s own town and State and country, cannot fail to interest children or adults, and civics is nothing but that. Treated as they should be, there can be no more fascinating drama than that which the social studies present.

In addition to the intrinsic interest which these school subjects possess, there are aids and agencies at the disposal of every resourceful teacher for making them vivid, gripping and enduring. What about excursions to monuments and places which make the subjects real? And What of the dramas and pageants which kindle a living interest in matters of bygone days: pictures, still, moving and audible, which put life into ‘the dead past’ and make children re-live those eventful times? With this amount of ‘vicarious experience,’ the pupils are certain to imbibe a lasting interest in the subject, which means that, so far as those children are concerned, these subjects will have a future. Courses in music, drawing and painting should develop permanent sources of enjoyment. Unfortunately they are handled by men least likely to pass on a passion for those arts. Contagious enthusiasm should be regarded a qualification no less indispensable than a first class certificate. Tastes and standards are things which in a sense can be taught as well as caught. Unless refined tastes and high standards come to hold sway, the cheap and the commonplace will obtain a disastrously exclusive control.

And what are not the possibilities in the line of nature study, physics and chemistry?

The school library can be of invaluable assistance in encouraging the reading habit, a habit which will, in youth and in age, prove an unfailing source of pleasure. It should lead to love of ownership of books and magazines, and to the use of facilities offered by the public libraries. Since the aim of the school library is to foster love of reading, care has to be taken to see not only that the reading provided is good and plentiful, but that the materials are made accessible in attractive form and at the appropriate time.

Outside the regular curriculum there are even greater opportunities for the development of recreational interests. For it is the recognition that the school should aim not only at producing citizens who shall have acquired skill, ability and knowledge, but also at educating young people to carry into life with them varied interests, a broad outlook and a rich personality, that has brought into existence what are usually called a ‘extra-curricular activities.’ These activities furnish experiences which stimulate interest in certain avocations and then lead to the development of interesting and desirable hobbies. They also get pupils into the habit of using most of the ordinary means of recreation and enjoyment.

This approach is particularly successful amongst other reasons, because of the play given to the social tendency in group activities. The formation of appropriate voluntary clubs, for the encouragement of the different interests and activities, has often met with so much success that a number of progressive schools have shown an inclination to provide a place for them in the regular time-table. Another important factor which makes this line of attack so advantageous is the supervision of the teacher-adviser who knows the pupils as well as he knows the educative possibilities of the particular activity. The remarkable thing is that interests and hobbies started under these auspices tend to become permanent possessions.

And now consideration of some of these activities and avocations.

Extra-cumcularly, literary interests can be created and developed by the preparation of school handbooks, magazines and newspapers. The quantity as well as the quality of work that school children can do along this line, with a little guidance and encouragement from their teachers, is amazing. Literary and debating clubs are other means for fostering love of purposeful reading and informed conversation.

Clubs for music and drama foster both talent and appreciation, and both capable producers and intelligent consumers are needed. Participation on the school stage enables one to get a great deal more out of subsequent attendance at the theatre. Also, the occasional performance of an expert gives the amateur pupil-actors an idea of the possibilities before them and the way to concretize them. If it is true that demand regulates supply, it means that people are given, on the stage and the screen, what they desire. It is for this very reason that good taste and high standards must be made the enduring possession of our prospective citizens.

Outdoor pursuits are always healthy and recreative and are not difficult to encourage. A school which arranges picnics, ‘hikes’ and excursions, long or short, educational or not, will stimulate in its pupils a love for the hills, the rivers, the forests and ‘the starry firmament,’ and start them in the habit of going out on little excursions of their own, not for mere exercise but for contemplation. Scouting is another invaluable means of encouraging interest in the life out of door. As a corrective to the sedentary, stay-at-home habits, deplorably common among the so called educated classes (tired and retired alike!), such an early campaign would be of inestimable advantage.

Games and sports might have been included along with out-door pursuits, were they not so important in themselves. The value on the physical side is recognised to be great enough to deserve their introduction in the high school, but the social advantages are not less significant. The enjoyment of club life later depends to a large extent on the ability to partake whole-heartedly, not necessarily in an expert manner, in games of one kind or another and to mix un-self-consciously with persons in various stations of life. Since vigorous athletics will have to be abandoned as age advances, it is necessary that activities suited to different stages should be learnt and pursued. For a normal, satisfying life, a regular regime of physical activity is indispensable, and this should be begun while habits are being formed.

The value of interesting hobbies can never be exaggerated. They enable people to pass their spare time profitably and in pleasure and without injury to others. Especially valuable are they, when working days are over and the time seems to hang heavy on one. Instead of feeling on retirement as though the very foundations had been knocked off from underneath, and instead of collapsing, they might easily take to the avocations begun while at school. Resourceful teachers can get their pupils enthused over hobbies associated with several of the school subjects. Collecting stamps, butterflies, picture postcards, quaint stones and shells, etc., will teach a number of useful things.Photography, gardening, carpentry, dairy-farming and poultry-raising represent other useful and absorbing pastimes, which might conceivably become more a vocation than an avocation for a retired couple. No man and no woman, who took to these hobbies in youth, have yet found age uninteresting or unprofitable or unsatisfying.

If man is a social animal and woman more so, social activities should find a large place in the extra-curricular programme of a school. They would not only offset the academic and individualistic tendencies of our education, but enable our young people to fit into social life later on. The group activities mentioned earlier definitely make for a certain social efficiency. In addition, well-organized social parties and gatherings, should provide desirable training in conversation and entertainment, which alone can transform feeding into fellowship, a biological necessity into a social phenomenon. These are all activities which might well occupy some part of one’s leisure, and therefore practice in actual social situations should not be withheld from school pupils, especially when, as it happens, they are most craving for society.

Another aspect of the social urge, which has tremendous possibilities as a leisure time occupation, is social service. In a country so obviously full of misery and misfortune, sorrow and suffering, he must be made of stone who has not understood the crying need for social service. And yet how few run to give succour readily? If some indeed are ready for social service, they are unprepared and ineffective. Indiscriminate generosity is sometimes worse than useless. Therefore experience in scouting, guiding, first aid, ‘big brother and big sister’ organisations, social service leagues, rural uplift, adult education and cooperation with hospitals and child welfare centres will be extremely valuable. As a small return for the health and strength they enjoy, young people should cultivate the habit of tending the less fortunate. Besides, when the hustle and bustle of the work-a-day world has slackened, when the maddening rush for gold has ceased, when man is again his own master, a life of unsparing service should be more the rule than the exception. As the shadows lengthen, what better offering can creatures make to their Creator than the selfless tending of their fellow-creatures?

These then are a sampling of the things which schools can do to equip the citizens of the future with the ability satisfactorily to use their leisure. Great responsibility tests on the school as the idealized epitome of the world to reflect the problems which the children face and will face increasingly, and to supply effective solutions therefor. The attitude towards life and the achievements of men and women during their leisure hours and after retirement should be traced to their alma mater in the same way as their doings while in harness are at present proudly traced. The school cannot forget, as it has so often in the past, that its function is not only ‘bread-winning’ but also ‘soul-saving.’ It is for this reason that reformers insist that schools, which concern themselves with preparing pupils exclusively for the sunlit hours of toil, and which forget the quiet hours of moonlight in a man’s existence, are doing less than their duty.