Back to the future: The potential relationship between leisure and education.

There is a long, documented history of the relationships among leisure, recreation, and education dating back to Greek philosophy.Originally there was little differentiation among the terms as they were presented as a unified process for youth and human development. Over time, each of these fields has developed, and their definitions have been shaped and reshaped. Using some of the original conceptions from Aristotle and Plato, coupled with foundational premises suggested by Dewey, this article frames current youth development efforts in a historical context. The authors suggest that perhaps what the separate professions might define as high-quality leisure, recreation, and educational experiences still maintain links among each. They further suggest that planned experiences with increasing levels of coordination can strengthen these links and develop an "education-for-leisure" perspective among participating youth and the choices they make. Self-determination theory (SDT) refers to the autonomy in choosing a particular behavior or action. Youth development opportunities that make connections between the content of a regular school day and choice of activity during out-of-school time can inculcate self-determined leisure choices that are productive. Planned and intentional educational experiences expand the possibilities for productive recreational choices. This article therefore proposes a framework for increasing levels of coordination among educational and recreational entities so that participating youth can develop and adopt an education-for-leisure disposition.

A competency-based approach to preparing staff as recreation and youth development leaders.

Youth development professionals and parks and recreation professionals often are charged with providing services to youth. However, the approach of each can be quite different as recreation is a primary focus for recreation professionals and part of many services offered by youth development specialists. Despite the differences, these two groups of professionals can learn a great deal from each other. This article examines youth development and staff training with examples from the field and suggests how youth development professionals can learn from recreation professionals and vice versa. It suggests that parks and recreation professionals can strengthen degree programs, accreditation, certification, and continuing education by incorporating specific youth development competencies established by the National Collaboration for Youth. For their part, youth development professionals can learn from parks and recreation professionals how to enhance recreation programming as part of their services by gaining an understanding of program design, program and activity leadership, and administrative practices. With much debate over whether more education or more experience is a better path for those working with youth, the authors suggest that a combination of both will adhere to the quality of staff. Staff gain further knowledge and skill from academic preparation at the undergraduate and graduate levels, field-based training through jobs and internships, and continuing education courses specializing in youth development competencies and recreation-based competencies set within a youth development environment.