The Free Time Dimension of Literary Education in the 21st Century

The text refl ects on the contemporary overly-technological society and suggests one of the possible ways to weaken the domination of technology over being, namely by returning to the printed word and critical thinking. It describes the current state of school literary education. The aim of the paper is to point out the specifi cs of literary education in free time and the possibilities of its use as its potential is not currently fully exploited. Literary education in free time can intensively focus primarily on the development of reading, functionally complement school literary education, and thus contribute to the comprehensive development of personality. At the same time, it can be understood as one of the ways of lifelong learning.


Introduction
Today's rapidly changing society of the 3 rd millennium brings a whole range of modern conveniences that aff ect all areas of human life -study, work, and free time. Th is places increased demands on individuals. One must learn to navigate oneself well in this overly-technological world and fulfi l one's life role in today's society. Does today's world of technical conveniences bring benefi ts to human life? E. Fromm describes the world in the 21 st century as a 'tech-saturated' but 'dehumanised' , not 'feeding' society suffi ciently in terms of humanity. 1 We are witnessing human relationships being depersonalised, alienated, and strongly individualised. Man is overwhelmed by things, material, and consumption. He is exposed to the chaos of possible interpretations and is facing media manipulations. His life is pushed into the scheme of work, enjoyment, and consumption. And in terms of education, there is no clear evidence that modern information technology improves teaching outcomes in schools. Surveys show that its excessive use leads to superfi cial thinking of students, distracts their attention, increases aggression, and oft en brings feelings of loneliness and depression. It can even cause pupils' poor school performance and can reduce their overall chances of being educated. For example, M. Spitzer in the publication Digitální demence or M. Wolfová in the book Čtenáři, vrať se. Mozek a čtení v digitálním světě draw attention to a number of negative impacts. 2 V. Cílek expressed his concerns as early as in 2016 saying these words: 'the coming generations will be, in many respects, among the dumbest and least prepared generations of the last centuries because working with computers has robbed them of long-term strategic planning and experience of the natural world' . 3 How can this pressure be countered in the digitised world of image dominance which increasingly accelerates its pace and gradation of the degree of abstraction? One of the ways to disrupt the established dominance of technology over being is an aimed return to the word in the form of printed literary texts, a return to literature which represents an impulse to critical, creative, and engaged thinking -not only in the school environment. In the 21 st century, in this sense, a wide fi eld of activity opens up for the fi eld of free time pedagogy.

Literary Education in Schools
Literary education which falls into the fi eld of aesthetic education is considered to be (from a historical point of view) one of the oldest areas of education in general. At certain stages (for example, in antiquity or during the Renaissance) it even was the most important area. 4 It belongs to expressive subjects, and it is most oft en associated with school education. Literary education has undergone considerable development in recent decades. Modern times associated with rapid progress in the fi eld of electronic media and less interest in books cause teachers to consider the direction in which the teaching of the subject should go in terms of content and methodology. Th e current concept of literary education is based on framework educational programmes (RVP PV -Rámcový vzdělávací program pro předškolní vzdělávání, RVP ZV -Rámcový vzdělávací program pro základní vzdělávání, and RVP GV -Rámcový vzdělávací program pro střední vzdělávání). Th ese programmes set out the basic forms of literary education: its goals, expected outcomes, and recommended curriculum for individual stages of education. However, the expected outcomes of curricular documents work insuffi ciently, especially with the aff ective component of the literary-educational process, and they prefer the scientifi c and activity components. Warning voices are heard from the general public with specialist knowledge. Within expressive subjects in school, the position of literary education is rather marginal. Th e main shortcoming of contemporary literary education is seen in the insuffi cient application of the principle of creativity. 5 Another problem is insuffi cient time allowance for classes. Pupils do not have enough space during lessons to experience the joy of reading and their own spontaneous work. Th e small time allowance does not allow teachers to use interdisciplinary relationships to a necessary and expected extent. Th ey do not even have enough time to properly refl ect upon the reading of literary texts. We see the main problem of literary education teaching in the predominance of the factual component of the subject and in the dominant use of teaching from the front of the classroom. A frequent characteristic feature of current teaching is the short reading of samples or the mere mechanical reading of longer samples. Th is situation persists in school practice from the very beginning and has repeatedly become the subject of discussion. 6 On the other hand, we cannot work without a literary-historical and literary-theoretical context in the teaching of literature. Without them, the pupil cannot even understand a literary work, so how could he interpret it then? Th e point is to fi nd the right degree of involvement of the science component, and to pay enough attention to one's own reading education. It includes the formation of values and attitudes, the development of experiences at the aesthetic level, and creative activities (respectively active and productive activities). In the current didactics of literary education, one oft en speaks of communicative literary education which is based on the interpretation of artistic text, respectively on a dialogue. O. Hník, for example, analyses this innovative concept in confrontation with the classical one in his works. He mentions the current dichotomy of the traditional versus innovative (interpretive, expressive, experiential, creative) concept of literary education. 7 Th ere are a number of inspiring concepts for this innovative approach. L. Lederbuchová uses the term 'didactic interpretation' for her interpretive activity. 8 Her stimulus is based on a specifi c teaching situation and focuses on the student's direct communication with the literary text. In this process, when aesthetic literary information is transferred between the author and the recipient of the text, the semantic possibilities of the text meet the interpretive possibilities of the pupil. During the interpretive work with a text, according to the author, it is appropriate to include activities related to creative activity (text completion, reformulating the text, creative writing), or connect the text with other aesthetic-educational methods (for example, dramatisation, illustration, setting the text to music). J. Kusá emphasises the fact that in teaching literary education we should combine these approaches to working with artistic text because this is the only way to achieve the main goals of literary education: cultivating a positive attitude towards literature and cultural values, creating motivation for further reading, development of communication and argumentation skills, mediation of aesthetic experience, formation of the pupil's personality, attitudes and value orientations, and also the fulfi lment of cognitive goals. 9 Th e author mentions the creation of productive communication literary teaching. B. Plánská has been drawing attention to the fact that unifi cation pressure has been exerted on literary education in schools since the 1990s. It seeks to squeeze literary education into the scientifi c type of natural science disciplines with their relatively simple control and classifi cation links. Th is entails inadequate emphasis on the biographical-historical component of the subject and the separation of literary education from language. 10 Basic (6-15 year olds) and middle (15-18 year olds) school teachers consider the lack of interest of pupils in education to be the biggest obstacle to the development of reading literacy; further, it is the lack of time in teaching process, oversizing of 6  the framework and school educational programmes, and insuffi cient vocabulary of pupils caused by insuffi cient reading and excessive use of electronic communication (SMS, e-mails, or social networks). 11

Literary Education and Reading
Th e long-term trend of Czech basic (6-15 year olds) and middle (15-18 year olds) pupils' lack of interest in reading has been reaffi rmed in recent years by a survey by the Czech School Inspectorate. Th is institution, in the 2017/18 school year, focused on assessing the conditions and course of reading literacy at upper basic (12-15 year olds) and middle schools and at the achieved level of reading literacy among pupils in the 9 th class (15 year olds), and the 2 nd year middle school (17 year olds, including the corresponding years of multi-year grammar schools). Th e survey was completed by 4,758 pupils from the 9 th class and 436 teachers from 163 schools at the upper basic level of education as well as 8,568 students in middle school (17 year olds) and 422 teachers from 151 middle schools. Th e thematic report Rozvoj čtenářské gramotnosti na základních a středních školách ve školním roce 2017/2018 shows that 'the rather negative attitude of older schoolchildren to reading persists, and the level of some important skills, such as critical thinking about information in the text and the degree of its generalisation, is insuffi cient. Th e overall results were again below the expected level for basic and middle schools. ' 12 Research into the relationship of pupils to the teaching of the Czech language and literature has shown that two-fi ft hs of pupils look forward to the teaching while another two-fi ft hs consider the teaching to be boring (students of middle schools enjoy the subject more). Furthermore, it was confi rmed that the possibility to use various procedures, methods, and tools leading to the attractiveness of the teaching process is not suffi ciently used. Th e inspectors found that in more than a quarter of the Czech language and literature lessons attended, the reading objectives of the teaching were not formulated in any way. One of the main proposed solutions leading to the improvement of the level of reading literacy (which has been considered for a long time) are changes in the content of the subject Czech language and literature (respectively, changes that would relate to the curriculum of literature, not to the language-grammar area). In the fi eld of reading, it is recommended to choose attractive literary works in the teaching process, to choose from a varied off er of books, and not to be afraid to recommend simpler literature that would be interesting for students fi rst. Pupils can then discover for themselves the beauty of valuable artistic literature. It is also necessary to bear in mind the fact that in basic school (6-15 year olds) education the emphasis is mainly on grammar while in middle school (15-18 year olds) education the focus is on literature. In both cases, it is at the expense of teaching communication skills, including reading. 13 Th e abovementioned thematic report also dealt with the available material background for the development of reading literacy at schools -this mainly concerns school libraries and reading corners. Inspectors found a well-functioning library in only three-fi ft hs of schools. Shortcomings also include an inadequate supply of titles or limited access to books. 14 PISA reading literacy surveys (including the latest survey from 2018) have repeatedly confi rmed that 'Czech pupils are slightly below the OECD average' . 15 Th is makes it more diffi cult for them to understand the text itself than to process a set of texts (for example, diff erent articles on the same topic or a discussion forum with contributions from diff erent users). Th e general public with specialist knowledge as a whole calls for the inclusion of literary education among the foundations of contemporary education. Reading becomes a necessary prerequisite for a successful professional, social, and personal life. Literary education is a multidimensional area that extends into many other areas of education. J. Kusá emphasises that literary education implemented in the school environment is 'the only systematic and long-term educational activity of a literary nature that prepares pupils for life in a cultural and social context' . 16 Th e development tendencies of the present time show that literary education must be connected with other fi elds of formative character, especially with ethical, personal, social, multicultural, and media education.

Literary Education in Free Time
Literary education includes education leading to literature, education through literature, and also education leading to reading. Th e essential elements of the reader's socialisation are family, school, and library. Th is is evidenced, for example, by J. Trávníček's latest research from 2018. In our opinion, these three essential socialisation elements could be supplemented by a fourth pillar which would be based on the use of literary education in free time. If we look at literary education through a free time viewpoint, then we understand it primarily as education leading to reading, education leading to literature, and education through literature. It plays an important role especially in free time education. Reading plays a signifi cant role in the context of the overall structure of free time activities for children and adolescents (and not only in this age group). Th e pedagogical interpretations of humanism (especially the orientation to freedom of choice in fulfi lling free time, open possibilities of self-realisation, support for the development of individuality, tolerance, creativity, orientation to experiential pedagogy, and animative conceptions of education) infl uences free time education. 17 It is a voluntary activity which includes one's interests. Its meaning lies in freedom and joyful spontaneity that is experienced by participants. It turns out that free time pedagogy is a suitable tool for the growth of what is most human in man. Its goal is to discover the value of man. In the case of children and young people, it is an accompaniment in dynamic growth. During the growth an individual is formed. Th e measure of growth is the human person, the completed humanity. J. A. Comenius's Pampaedia deals with how to make a person truly human. In this sense, it presents the fi rst systematic theory of education which is not limited to school education. At the same time, it promotes lifelong learning. 18 In addition to the concept of mutual sharing of the community of others, the principle of individuation is applied in the pedagogy of free time. On its basis, the individual is pulled out of the functionalist mass and feels the sense of uniqueness. Th e free time educator bases his actions on the value of his student which cannot be relativised. He tries to 'fi nd the hidden point, accessible to the good' (G. Bosco). 19 It is an accompaniment which is free from the guarantee of power. It goes through the paths of what the school did not give individuals so completely, or at all. In free time and extracurricular activities, 2020 it is a matter of inducing a positive transfer of the participant from 'I don't want, I don't have to' to the level 'I don't have to, but I want' . 20 Th ese activities are a response to the impulse of human nature which activates itself in the desire for experiential knowledge. According to V. Spousta, there is no doubt about the fact that free time creates the most favourable 'climatic conditions' for the reception of art. 21 Art has the ability to innovate man's relationship to reality. Th erefore, it has a great power of transformation and education. Art fulfi ls, in addition to the basal function (that is, for example, value, aesthetic, informative, communicative), the formative (that is, for example, pedagogical, humanising), therapeutic, and recreational function.  of lifelong learning). Th e free time educator should become a real guide to reading and, through empathic coexistence, also a counsellor when solving possible personal problems and managing the more diffi cult life situations of his students. He can deal with current topics captured in literary works (oft en controversial) which have appeared in literature since the 1990s (for example, the themes of death and dying, bullying, dysfunctional families, life with disabilities). He can then choose a number of traditional activities (these are reading groups, reading clubs, and workshops mostly), and less traditional ones, that is, using many innovative modern activation methods, focusing on the readers' favourite genres (comics, fantasy, detective stories, etc.). He should respect readers' interest in specifi c titles as well. In terms of teaching methods and forms of work, our advice is to use a combination of them for free time activities. Educators (including free time educators) and tutors should be equipped with expertise and competencies in the fi eld in order to be able to off er their students a variety of methods. Th ese methods should be part of the active way of teaching, leading courses, and free time activities. Unfortunately, nowadays we do not encounter a suffi cient off er of courses of further education (concerning pedagogical staff ) which would strengthen these professional competencies. In our opinion, however, a good methodological core based on theoretical knowledge is absolutely crucial for subsequent verifi cation in practice. Today, we can draw the attention of children and young people through fun and suffi ciently varied activities of all-round development. Th e results of the ČŠI (Czech School Inspection) survey in recent years have repeatedly pointed, for example, to the insuffi cient use of group work. Th e conclusions from the inspection reports can become an important inspiration for teachers when choosing adequate activities even in free time literary education. Literary education in free time is characterised by specifi c features (see the abovementioned specifi cs) which need to be taken into account in our own practice. Th ese are, for example, the fact that free time educators are not bound by recommended reading (they can carry out their activities more freely outside the school environment or use various activating innovative methods without the dictates of a limited time allowance) is an indisputable advantage over school teaching. For literary-educational activities in free time, it is appropriate to choose various brainstorming methods (for example, classical brainstorming, leaf method, diamond, discussion web, method 635), dramatisation methods (for example, act and speak, body-sculpting, text dramatisation, role playing, staging methods), communication methods (yes/no, hot seat, communication circle, giant paper, interview, Socratic method, storytelling, etc.), methods of working with text (letters from readers, reading with questions, complementation, double diary, I.N.S.E.R.T. tags, keywords, pair reading, double diary, composing text, pyramid, guided notes, guided reading, reading with anticipation, joint reading, SQ4R, study guide, the world in my head, jumbled sentences, concept map, map of stories), creative writing methods (5W, hamburger, RAFT method, modelled writing, story map, sample completion, stories matching pictures, here and now, pyramid story, role on the wall, co-writing, guided writing, free writing), as well as various puzzles (crosswords and octagons, loops and complements) or competitions. 26 As for the forms of work, we recommend both individual work and work in pairs, group work (including team work). It is also appropriate to include project teaching methods or methods of experiential pedagogy. In the list of methods, we have not yet mentioned the programme RWCT, which is Čtením a psaním ke kritickému myšlení (Reading and Writing for Critical Th inking). In the Czech Republic, it is known as Kritické myšlení (Critical Th inking). Th e programme was established in 1997 on the premises of the American Democratic Education Consortium. Th anks to the support of the Open Society Fund, it has spread to Europe. It was launched in the Czech Republic in 2000. Th e civic association Kritické myšlení is an organisation that is a licensed copyright holder of this programme in the Czech Republic. Th e programme develops students' cognitive skills and can be used for all school levels (from elementary schools to colleges and universities). Th e aim of the programme is to develop advanced thinking but also the skills needed for problem solving, eff ective communication, meta-cognitive refl ection, and evaluation of one's own thought process. 27 It supports teaching methods that help students to be active in learning, to think critically and creatively, and to work cooperatively. Th e RWCT programme presents a three-phase learning model that can be applied to any subject. Th e model called E-U-R includes the phase of evocation (remembering and recalling previous experiences), realising the importance of information (constructing one's own knowledge based on, for example, the study of learning texts), and refl ection (re-construction and restructuring of the original pre-concept, that is, evocation based on confrontation with a scientifi c concept -awareness of the importance of information). Th is creates a new individual concept. 28 According to the proponents of critical thinking, thinking critically means 'grasping an idea and exploring it thoroughly, subjecting it to unbiased scepticism, comparing it with opposing views (and with what we already know about the subject), and taking a position on that basis. ' 29 Procedures and methods of critical thinking mean (for the student and the teacher) being curious, not afraid to ask questions, to choose diff erent procedures for fi nding information, to constantly look for answers, to doubt, to be able to reach one's own decision. Th e programme also includes the ability to discuss, argue, consider other people's arguments, be able to listen to and respect the opinions of others, etc. 30 RWCT methods include brainstorming methods, mind maps, many methods of working with text, methods focused on cooperative learning, etc.

Literary Education in Free Time as a Functional Supplement to School Education
Th e potential of literary education in free time is currently not fully exploited. If we compare the reality of the school teaching process with the possibilities off ered by literary education in free time, we can talk about the complementary nature of this education in the sense of a functional supplement of the school subject, rather than being in a competitive relationship. Th e key common feature is the artistic literary text. Unlike school teaching, free time literary education can come with the absolutisation of the reader's concept and a number of non-traditional activating teaching methods associated with play and experience, refl ective dialogues (including postmodernist 'inspired reading'). Due to the fact that students mostly see only the curriculum in school literary texts, literary education in free time can achieve deeper cognitive dimensions of the subject more eff ectively (non-coercively, inconspicuously, naturally). Th is is done not only through the integration of educational content that fulfi ls the teaching concept of the subject and the requirement to develop students' thinking but also through traditional school teaching methods, such as critical thinking and reading. Th e student approaches the acquisition of new knowledge in a more positive mood, and, at the same time, in a pleasant expectation of his own communicative activities when becoming acquainted with the facts of literary history, concepts of literary theory, and searching for the meanings of literary texts. Th e initial benefi t of literary education in free time is undoubtedly the attractiveness of free time usage without school duties. Th ere is the possibility of experiencing the joy of 'being yourself ' in the wonderful magic of being which is represented by inspiring reading and a group of equally 'passionate' individuals who form an explorative community. Th e work of art comes to life with their reading and interpretation during a joint discussion, coexistence. Personal encounters with the text and other people are most important. Literary education in free time has the possibility to become a fundamental break allowing a dialogue with one's own life. Th e artistic text 'intervenes' by showing the horizons and possibilities of the reader's own existence, by confronting him with himself and others. In the words of D. Hodrová, 'the reader, who is opened to the part of world which goes beyond, sees the world as a wide fi eld of possibilities. ' 31 In this, literary education conforms to one of the basic principles of free time pedagogy. As it turns out, direct cognition in the position of the fi rst person (personal cognition of the work) cannot be replaced by distant cognition (in the position of the third person), that is, interpretation, paraphrase, a book report. 32 At school, instead of coming to know the text, we oft en see students simply learning about the text. It is no exception that the student only masters the subject matter by memory and reproduces the meta-text information of the teacher (unambiguous petrifi ed meta-text about the meaning of the text which fulfi ls only a documentary function). 33 Th e artistic nature of a literary work and its aesthetic function is oft en only referred to in the context of a factual interpretation. 34 It is necessary to draw the student spontaneously and inspiringly into the world of the text so that he enters it himself and for himself authentically. Th en, he can base his knowledge on his own experience with the work, the text. At school, progress is mainly through the intellect, and, on the contrary, it goes less 'through the heart' .

Conclusion
Literary education in free time, especially education leading to reading, can contribute to the comprehensive development of personality. It can be understood as one of the ways of lifelong learning. In the free time environment, literature can reach a wide range of readers with diverse goals: not only children (including the non-reader category) but also young people, adults, and the elderly. Th e target categories of participants can work closely together in the fi eld of literary education in their free time, as demonstrated by various contemporary inter-generational projects (for example, seniors reading in kindergartens, older pupils reading to younger primary school children, or pupils reading in retirement homes). Th is also includes activities carried out within universities of the third age. As an example, let us mention the literary block of the University for Grandparents and Grandchildren course which has been implemented at the Faculty of Th eology of the University of South Bohemia for several years. Primarily, in education, it should not be about what students take away from school (facts, skills, competencies) but what they will become. It is the integrity of the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual unity of their existence. Today, it can be stated with certainty that the waste of the 31