Education for leisure: the secondary schools responsibility - retrospect and prospect

Abstract

Education for leisure for many years, has been recognised as a responsibility of secondary schools, yet little effort has been made by educational authorities towards implementing broad policies such as those proposed by the Thomas Report in 1942. The spirit of the Thomas Report lives on. Its essential elements are embodied in the Johnston Report of 1977. Changing social conditions however have added a new urgency to the broad proposals made in these two reports. This thesis reviews some of these changing social conditions and their relationship to recent educational reform. Present policies for implementing leisure education are discussed and new proposals put forward. These new proposals are aimed at promoting a broadly based, comprehensive programme of education for leisure in New Zealand Secondary Schools. They are aimed at complementing rather than detracting from the present humanistic education.