Planning for the program "leisure during the school break" ("Recreio nas Férias") in the brazilian city of Americana, state of São Paulo

This study reports the planning and the implementation of the program "Recreio nas Ferias" in one of the centers of the program "Second Half" ("Programa Segundo Tempo"), located in Vila Jones in the Brazilian city of Americana, State of Sao Paulo. The program "Leisure During the School Break" ("Recreio nas Ferias") is a project of the Ministry of Sports, lounged in 2009. The aim was, during the school break, to provide children and adolescents with sports and leisure activities (games, sports, artistic, cultural, social and tourism activities) "to fill the free time during school break with pleasant constructive ways" (BRASIL, 2010). Paralleling these goals with the current thinking in the academic field of leisure, we observe that public policies still reinforces the notion that leisure is an occupation for "passing the time", mainly when designed for the working classes. This is evident with the explicit concern of "to fill the free time", emphasizing its occupational character. Therefore, we discuss this situation under Silva (2003, 2008) and Marcellino (1995, 2001, 2008) approach in which leisure is one of many possibilities of living playfully and constructing citizenship. We attempt to answer the question: can leisure fulfill another role than this "passing the time" notion typically found in sport and leisure government policies for the working classes?