Rational Recreation - Essay Example

Recreation should be rational: How has this idea been expressed at different times? Discuss with reference to both the ancient and the modern world (Author’s name) (Institutional Affiliation) Recreation is a concept that has varied definitions depending on context. It can be to refresh by engaging in some form of past time activity or some form of exercise. However, from the word re-create that would mean to add life to something through the influence of surroundings that are pleasurable. Recreation can therefore be the restoration of strengths and spirits after an involving task1. Recreation is an avenue of getting entertainment or a diversion from some form of daily engagements. Scholars have however had differing definitions to recreation: some define recreation as the activities an individual’s chooses to engage in during their free time. The basis of this definition is that all the activities that the individual will pursue during the free time will act as a form of refreshment and re-create the individual in readiness for tackling the day-to-day activities that the individual normally engages in. Other scholars consider recreation to any activity one engages in during their leisure time. This does not include activities that one is highly committed to these include activities like going shopping, working overtime, undertaking house repairs, voluntary maintenance of one’s car, pursuing further education, childcare, dedication time to religion or joining politics2. Nevertheless from the varied views by various people the common denominators that characterise recreation is that it is an activity undertaken during leisure time, it should be free and should provide a source of pleasure. Finally, the pleasurable effects should be immediate and be felt almost instantly. The people who lived in the ancient times had various forms of recreation. The most advanced among them were the Roman people. The residents of Rome had some of the most interesting ways of spending their leisure time. Various sources of entertainment were like the roads, roman baths and the roman villas. The villas were country homes owned by wealthy Roman citizens. The owners of the villas used them as a gate away during hot summer days thus an important source of recreation. The villas had luxury amenities like the heated rooms and baths. Villa owners abandoned most of these properties when the Roman Empire collapsed. Other roman citizens had other ways of recreation. Gladiators were ancient fighters who fought against slaves, wild animals and fellow gladiators. Watching gladiators fight was a very popular mode of recreation during the roman time. Chariot races also served as a source of recreation as ancient Romans enjoyed watching chariots racing. These ancient forms of recreation have an important link to the modern world. Roman villas belonged to wealthy citizens who used them to spend much of their free time. Inside the villas, numerous leisure activities took place. In the modern world, these exist as exclusive members clubs. Wealthy citizens retreat to various clubs to spend leisure time. In these clubs, various sporting activities like golf, tennis and rugby occupy individual’s free time. Other social amenities like restaurants, saunas, and hot baths. This shows that ancient Romans had very sophisticated ways of spending leisure time and these ways have been embraced by the modern world. In the subsequent years, a form of physical recreation took root in the United Kingdom around mid 1800’s is known as rational recreation. Upper members of the society in their schools and classes first practiced it. After sometime members of the middle class joined them and introduced it to their schools and middle classes.3 This form of recreation emphasised on the promotion of worthy attributes that lead to productivity and causes good reputation. It involved activities like sports done in an organized manner, going hiking, engaging in popular education, political debates, drama and music. These methods of recreation are the most preferred in most societies of the world. It is peaceful and advocates for the proper usage of time to do constructive activities. It keeps individuals from over indulging in alcohol and other social vices. The development of rational recreation took place during the industrial revolution. Even though the revolution had initially had negative influences on the development of the sport as the years went by the concept of rational recreation began to feel some positive impacts. Negative effects were as a result of various factors, during the migration of lower class citizens into towns, resulted in loss of space and overcrowding, the people had shifted from work regulated by the seasons and were now constantly involved in the handling of machinery during the entire twelve hours of a day. Industry workers were living in abject poverty thus poor health and hygiene that caused lack of energy to engage in sports. During the period however, there was a massive improvement of the conditions. The health and hygiene conditions improved, more time to engage in recreation activities was provided due to the legislations that made Saturday a half working day. The industrial revolution resulted in new middle class who changed ways of behaving and playing sports. A need to maintain a physically fit frame also spread from the upper classes down to the lower classes. Due to constant activism, factories set aside time for recreation. During this time, factories established teams that would take part in various sporting activities. Employees were also encouraged to take up excursions at seaside destinations. Improvement in the transport and communication sector improved relational recreation massively. The establishment of a railway network increased opportunities for participation and spread interest in sports. Trains moved at faster speeds enabling more time for the purpose of sporting activities. Supporters of various teams were able to travel from one destination to another to show support for their teams. This necessitated some form of regulation and a code to regulate sporting activities. Trains were however, expensive and only middle and upper class citizens could afford to travel in them. The working population large relied on the financial capability of their employers in order to travel for match days. A significant role was played by the church in the development of rational recreation. The church had begun to embrace different view during the Victorian times and this contributed massively to the growth of sport and recreation.4 Church congregations like Sunday school encouraged control over social life through doing activities that were thought to show civilization. Churches [had facilities like halls that provided good venues for meetings among the working class to take place. the clergy took active part in such activities in order to improve church attendance. Migration of people from rural areas to urban settlements was also a critical factor to the development of rational recreation. The large populations of people living in the urban areas needed some form of entertainment. There was lack of adequate space due to congested settlements this necessitated the building of special facilities for the purposes of engagement in leisure activities. Factory owners thus set up teams to and took part in the provision of recreation facilities. Workers were able to enjoy the leisure time well and thus overall productivity at the work place went up. As a result, the wages began to increase. The benefits of rational recreation began to take effect in the society of that time. Schools and old boys from various schools enhanced the spread of rational recreation around the world. The individuals set up organizations to handle various sporting activities and established tournaments that were played with different people from across the globe. 5The old boys contributed to this development each in their own unique way, the industrialist provided facilities and established teams, missionaries encouraged people to engage in sporting activities as they went around preaching the gospel to the world. Army personnel formed team and spread sport throughout three United Kingdom territories. Finally, there were philanthropists who built up facilities to be used for sporting. There has been varying view in relation to how the modern and ancient worlds viewed rational recreation. Before the development of towns, ancient dweller lived in rural villages where they practised rural subsistence agriculture. With the advent of the industrial revolution, majority of these people traded their village lives for better lives in towns. In the ancient times this is where rational recreation started to take root and thus informs the how the recreation was viewed during that period.6 Ancient residents engaged in crude forms of sport like mob football. This was a highly risky affair, which men used to show their masculinity. However, in the urban areas a class of citizens refer to as the middle class began to develop. The middle class was involved in the running of factories at senior levels and thus had little time to find other sources of recreation. Due to the emergence of this middle class population rational recreation developed. Numerous reasons account for how the citizens at that time viewed the aspect of rational recreation: The middle class exploited the development of rational recreation as an opportunity to carryout business. Middle class formed clubs, these clubs were set aside for specific people within the society where they would come and enjoy a game, chat about politics and business and sample meals. Most sporting activities that were popular at these clubs were tennis, cricket, rugby and other indoor games .the middle class used the existence of rational recreation to further their agendas that were not in any way related to politics. Rational recreation in the ancient times was viewed a source of physical fitness. Most of the industrial workers had previously engaged in physically involving activities like land tillage. However, with the development of industries most did not take part in any physical activity. Rational recreation was thus viewed as a channel to lose some weight and keep in proper shape. Because of rapid urbanisation and overcrowding of people, social ill like crime and drug abuse began to crop in. To keep off such activities many organizations like churches encouraged young people to keep off crime and drugs by helping them concentrate their efforts in sporting activities. Rational recreation was thus viewed as a way of helping the youth keep of drugs and crime.7 There was also a critical lack of space for taking part in other activities. To tackle the issue of lack of space in urban areas the people developed rational recreation activities that would entertain but take up very little space. The people of the ancient time saw rational recreation as a solution to the lack of space. The emergence of team sports as football resulted was viewed as an appropriatte way to go about the issue of industrial mobilization of workers. It served as a good avenue to teach workers about the importance of teamwork. These ideologies are what revolutionised the crude form of football into a passing game where emphasis was now placed on the entire unit. Industrial proprietors thus preferred the use of team sports like football and rugby as opposed to individual sporting activities The view of the modern society on the rational recreation has not changed much over the years. The factor has changed largely is the motivation behind engaging in rational recreation. With rapid increase in the world’s population opportunities has massively reduced over the years. This has meant that new and innovative ways of earning a living have come up. What was formally a source of recreation among the ancient population has now developed into a multimillion industry. Various sporting activities that were previously done; just for leisure like playing football and tennis have been commercialised. Individuals now compete in various sporting events and are paid massive amounts of money. This has caused rational recreation activities to become careers to various individuals. Schools have come up that teach the important skills to children from a young age. The children then grow up with a good mastery of the skill and exploit this talent to earn a living. The world currently has full time athletes who depend only on the sports to earn a living. Other aspects have not changed much, rational recreation activities are still viewed as a source of physical fitness. The world’s population has continued to balloon over the years. This has resulted in rapid urbanization. Occupations have also changed drastically with the emergence of gadgets like computers. People do not engage much in physical activities. To keep in shape the people have this resorted to taking part in rational recreation as a means to keep fit and cut down excess weight. Despite all these rational recreation, activities are still viewed as a source of recreation. There are many people who take part I various indoor and outdoor sporting activities just for the thrill. Such individual have no financial motivation and most do it out of passion. Rational recreation is still viewed as an avenue for combating crime and drug abuse. Many of the world’s leaders use sports to discourage the youth from engaging in crime and drugs. Since there exist opportunities to earn income from sport most of the youth are encouraged to abandon drug usage and try a hand a sporting activities which can be potentially beneficial to them in relation to health and finances. Rational recreation also serves as an avenue for bringing the world’s population together. In multi, racial countries sporting activities have increasingly found use in rallying the citizen behind a common cause8. Footballing activities have evolved into a worldwide phenomenon with competitions that make various countries compete. Citizens from different countries therefore often rally behind their teams despite their colour. Rational recreation is still used to influence business and political activities through the members clubs. The clubs that were formed in the ancient times have evolved into large organizations where individuals part with large sums of money to gain membership. Because of the amounts involved, only the elite members of the society are able to join such clubs. These clubs offers recreation facilities in sports like tennis, golf, swimming and rugby. The members in addition to enjoying these sporting events get to meet and interact with their peers. Business deals are often struck during such meetings. Rational recreation has still maintained a strong position as an important contributor to the social life of elite members of the society. Rational recreation activities have evolved into platforms for various individuals and countries to highlight their prowess at certain activities. Major sporting events around the globe currently take place between countries. Most of the countries struggle hard in order to outdo the other. This intense competition between countries has resulted in individuals joining sport for the sole purpose of attaining recognition. Recreation is any activity that an individual engages in during their free time. Though the definitions to recreation vary depending on the various contexts, most scholars on this issue agree that for an activity to qualify to be classified as a recreation activity, it has to have certain distinctive characteristics. The activity must be done at no cost, the person taking part in the activity must have taken a break from other personal engagements to take part in the activity and once done they will resume their normal routine. The person must be able to draw a certain level of satisfaction and rejuvenation from taking part in the activity. Rational recreation developed during the industrial revolution when massive movement of people took place from the rural to urban areas. Many challenges encountered in the urban areas and the development of a middle class population resulted in development of rational recreation. In the urban areas, space was a challenge and thus traditional forms of recreation could not be used.9 The people had to find out new and innovative ways of entertaining themselves. The emergence of a middle class population, development of transport and communication, schools and factory owners contributed massively to the emergence of rational recreation. The industrial masters played a critical role in ensuring the activities gained popularity because they set up facilities and formed teams. The various people view rational recreation quite differently. Those who lived during the ancient times and in the modern era have quite distinctive views. During the ancient times recreations was solely done for relaxing in preparation for the next working day. However, due to modernization commercial value has been added to sporting activities. There are individuals who rely completely on various sporting events as their source of income. Other views that previous societies had of sports have however no changed much. Rational recreation is still used to refresh, keep physically fit, and the elite members of the society still use it as an avenue to conduct business through their private membership clubs. References Davis, B., Physical education and the study of sport. Rational recreation. Vol.1 no.1, 2000, pg.144 Cross, G., Encyclopedia of recreation and leisure in America. Rational recreation .Vol. 4. No.1, 2004, pg 345 Read More