| Baby boomers, those born specifically between 1946 and 1964, represent a generation that consists of nearly 76 million Americans. By the year 2011, the first wave of America's boomer generation will turn 65 years of age. By this date, nearly all boomers will have entered or will be entering the life of retirement and leisure, bringing with them their varied life experiences, life values, and life expectations. Given the foreseen impact of the baby boomer generation, it is imperative to examine the philosophical worthiness of current and future practices of recreation professionals when developing leisure program guidelines for the boomer cohort.; The purpose of this philosophical study is divided into five sections: (a) the need to explore the baby boomer cohort in relation to leisure programming, (b) a critique of current programming practices that typically do not use a systematic method of examining a cohort or developing guidelines, (c) development of a systematic format to examine a population that would be beneficial to leisure programming, (d) evaluation of this specific cohort, which is thought to be different, would be beneficial for future leisure planning in order to provide necessary leisure programs for this population; and (e) since guidelines do not exist, development of guidelines directed toward baby boomers in particular would be necessary and the right thing to do.; The importance of this study lies in the future demand of our leisure participants. Current practices of leisure programming may be problematic for the baby boomer cohort. Recreation professionals should adopt a different philosophical lens when providing leisure programming. In result, this study provides a paradigm of five main parts: (a) valuable information gleaned from current literature in the form of non moral values, (b) an instrument designed to assess the relatedness of these non moral values to the boomer population and the recreation professional, (c) hands on responses from the boomer population and recreation professionals regarding non moral values, (d) a different philosophical lens necessary for leisure programming, and (e) written guidelines based upon a different philosophical lens and non moral values which may serve as an aid in leisure programming by recreation professionals. |
