The importance of quiet spaces for relaxation and reflection

Are today’s students busier and more pressured than formerly? Do we keep our students too busy at school within the crowded curriculum, leaving little space or time for relaxation and learning through self-discovery? What are the implications for student wellbeing in terms of physical and mental health? Some recent research suggests that students have reduced opportunities, compared with previous generations, to engage in active, carefree play and spontaneous self-directed activities.

One example is the decline in active outdoor and creative play among primary school children, which has been linked with childhood obesity and growing numbers of children with anxiety problems. Evidence suggests that children are too busy with programmed and supervised school, after-school and community activities, too pressured by materialistic consumerism and too stressed by the demands of a highly competitive and acquisitive society to enjoy the sorts of informal, relatively unsupervised, play and spontaneous leisure activities that are so important for social learning and a balanced outlook on life (Walker 2006). Furthermore, today’s risk-averse, litigious social climate demands that both younger and older children are under adult supervision and surveillance for most of their waking hours. Parental fears over ‘stranger danger’ has curtailed children’s freedom to play in the street or go for a bike ride, despite statistics showing that the child’s world is no more risky than it was a generation ago. It has been claimed that ‘some children are under virtual house arrest as parents worry about what might happen’ (Bantick 2006). This helps to create a feeling of fear and anxiety among children and young people.

A deep-felt need to escape

This effect has been illustrated by research conducted by the author and colleagues on the views of secondary school students about the use of public and private space for out-of-school leisure activities, and the features of their ‘favourite place’. This has uncovered the deeply felt need of many young people to escape, at times, the pressures of their daily life to a place apart, to be able to ‘relax’ away from constant adult supervision and to find time and space where they can ‘think about things’ and ‘be myself’. The findings have implications for the school’s role in nurturing and supporting the wellbeing of young people. Principals and teachers may be prompted to consider ways in which more space might be provided, in both a physical and psychological sense, for play, relaxation and reflection.

In the globalised, digital age of information and communication technology, in which children are daily bombarded with information and sensation, there is a growing tendency in our space/time compressed lives to view ‘spare’ time as ‘wasted’ time. Indeed, we all tend to suffer from what has been called ‘hurry sickness’ (Bammel & Burrus-Bammel, 1996). Parents like to keep children of all ages ‘busy’ in order to ‘keep them out of trouble’ – organising after-school music and drama lessons, sports activities, junior gymnastics, and the like. A survey by Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) found that 80% of voters in their polls believed that parents are scheduling too many activities for their children and, in effect, taking away their childhood. Teenagers who like to ‘hang out’ after school with friends, especially in bus and shopping malls, and appear to adult eyes to be doing ‘nothing’, attract public criticism. These groups are often regarded as being ‘up to no good’, however harmless their activities. Teenagers complain that they are watched wherever they go and are often stigmatized, quite unfairly, as miscreants or potential shoplifters when shopping or window-shopping with their mates. Most do not feel they can ‘relax’ in public (Abbott-Chapman 2004).

At school, students of all ages find their school day filled to overflowing within the ever-expanding curriculum, and under growing pressure from increased academic expectations. Yet, research has shown that there are fewer ‘breaks’ in the school day than in the past, and students’ activities in breaks at lunch and recess  are more inhibited than formerly because of the necessary rules and regulations to limit ‘risk’ (Evans 2007). Many primary schools have removed ‘informal’ play equipment that does not conform to strict safety regulations, and have prohibited many activities previously regarded as harmless, such as running, climbing trees, ball games outside of prescribed areas, and games involving tackling or even touching. Playground supervision is now a more organised and accountable responsibility for teachers, which some describe as ‘guard duty’. The effect of this ‘policing’ of outdoor spontaneous play, while minimising the risk of injury and possible legal action, also makes it less appealing to children. Yet psychologists have shown that periods of play and spontaneous leisure activities are needed to assist the young person to assimilate learning, to explore their world, both physically and conceptually, and to establish their own sense of identity. Contact with, and direct experience of, the natural world is particularly important. Yet, the built environment of schools is often outmoded, restricting and sometimes run-down. ‘Typically, the nature spaces that still exist are ruled out-of-bounds to children. This is in complete contrast to what we know children prefer’ (Evans, 2007). Research on young people’s favourite places underlines the special role of ‘the bush’ in students’ creative imagination.

Recent Tasmanian research

Large scale research surveys, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, were conducted by the author and colleagues between 1999 and 2002, with some data re-analysis in 2006, designed respectively to investigate teenagers’ perceptions, and use, of both public and private places (Abbott-Chapman & Robertson 1999, 2001; Robertson & Abbott-Chapman 2004), and to relate these to their leisure activities, including harmful risk-taking such as alcohol and drug abuse (Abbott-Chapman & Denholm 2001; Abbott-Chapman, Denholm & Wyld 2008). There were 1,436 respondents in years 9 to 12, in both public and private schools and secondary colleges in all regions of Tasmania. Survey participants were drawn from a range of socio-economic and rural/urban backgrounds, with an almost equal balance of male and female respondents. The youngest students were aged 14 and the oldest 19, but the majority of respondents were aged between 15 and 18 years.

The first survey of year 9 and 10 students (356 respondents), on spatial perceptions asked about favourite place in an open-ended question. The two surveys of year 10 students (126 respondents) and year 11 and 12 students (954 respondents) on risk perceptions, and behaviours built upon the findings from the earlier survey, asked about favourite place in a closed-choice question. Despite this difference in approach, the findings are remarkably similar. Contrary to expectations that most teenage students might prefer noisy, crowded places in town, like shops and entertainment venues such as discos or sporting events, findings emphasised the importance for students of ‘quiet’ places of withdrawal, either on their own or with friends to enjoy their own pursuits. Favourite places were the student’s own home, especially their own bedroom, and places in nature, in the bush, by the sea or on the river. Significantly, between a quarter and a third of all respondents in each survey chose a place in the natural environment as their favourite place. Over twice as many as chose a place in town, such as entertainment or sporting venues or shopping areas. If holiday places interstate and overseas, chosen for their beach life or country pursuits, are included, the proportions preferring a place in nature are even greater. Although more country students chose places in the natural environment, and more town students chose ‘my bedroom’ as a ‘favourite place’, places in nature emerged as a more popular choice for both town and country students than did places in town.

Searching for a quiet place

Reasons given by year 9 and 10 respondents in their own, often eloquent, words, for why the place chosen was their favourite place are revealing. The words ‘peace’, ‘quiet’ and ‘calm’ feature much more than one might have expected among this age group and reflect a need to find a space ‘where I can think about things’ and ‘where I can be myself’. Those who chose ‘my home’ wrote of familiarity, security and comfort and said things like ‘I love my home –because it’s a place I know and can trust’. Those who chose ‘my bedroom’ typically said they wanted to be on their own with their ‘own things’ around them, to play their music, use their computer, and sometimes watch their own TV, ‘because it is quiet and I can think’, ‘because everyone leaves me alone when I am in there. It’s my own space’ and ‘it’s nice to go and relax in’.

Many who chose places in the bush, such as holiday places or their parents’, grandparents’ or friend’s shack also emphasised the privacy, the relaxation, peacefulness and the sense of freedom from restrictions. Comment such as ‘Out bush because it’s peaceful and quiet’, ‘The bush – a lot of space, freedom and animals’, ‘Our shack because it’s quiet and private’, ‘Shack away from the city’, ‘I’m free to do what I like and there isn’t anything to worry about’ were common. Places such as the beach, which might involve being with friends, or sometimes family, having fun and ‘hanging out’, were also places apart from the crowds and the pressure of day-to-day events. Beaches especially signify a more leisurely way of life. Typical comments were: ‘The beach relaxes me’, ‘Beach - peaceful. A nice place to think things over. Makes me feel free and happy’, ‘My favourite place is the beach, I love the sun and water’, ‘At the beach you can veg out, go for a swim or relax’. Water as represented by rivers or lakes also featured quite often among favourite places. Comments included: ‘At my uncle’s fishing in the creek and lakes’, ‘Up the lakes fishing for trout’ and ‘Near the yacht club. I like it because I love sailing out on the river’. Swimming pools were also popular. Living on an island, Tasmanians are reputedly fascinated by water, which these findings confirmed, and reasons given were active engagement rather than passive viewing. Respondents associated a wide range of leisure pursuits and sports with favourite places in the natural environment - over 20 different activities in all, including walking, bike riding, motorbike riding, horse riding, camping, sailing, fishing, surfing, swimming, waterskiing and body boarding. These activities were associated with feelings of freedom, relaxation and escaping from everyday pressures and worries.

For many respondents, favourite places suggested a ‘withdrawal’ of some kind, so it was important to find out how often students seek ‘time out from things and people that bother you’. As many as 92.9% of year 11 and 12 students said they like to take ‘time out’ either ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’. This raises the question for parents, teachers and welfare service providers of whether, in trying to organise and supervise young people every minute of the day, with the aim of keeping them out of trouble, do we take into account sufficiently their need to withdraw at times for creative reflection about everything that confronts them?

A place apart

Could schools do more to provide students with places in which to relax and reflect? The analysis of survey findings of the favourite places of teenage students has revealed a widespread preference for ‘places apart’, either in the home or in the natural environment, rather than for crowded, noisy places in town which might have been expected. Reasons given for choice of favourite places, as idealised environments, have focused on the sensations of peace, relaxation, calm and opportunity to ‘be myself’ either alone or with close friends, and away from adult supervision and surveillance. Typical of such a choice is the desire to escape to a ‘green retreat’, as noted in Bell’s research in 2005 among youth ‘at risk’- a place in the bush, at the beach or by the river, a place with opportunities for spontaneous leisure and sporting activities- a  place out of time, a ‘private’ space.

The meaning of ‘time out’ and ‘favourite place’ seem to be integrally related, and some places are favoured more than others for particular sorts of ‘time out’ experience. Findings suggest that representations by children and young people of their ideal environments tend to be those which afford learning experiences and environmental interaction (Kyatta 2002) and discovery through play and/or leisure pursuits. Favourite place of ‘own bedroom’ tended to be a more socially passive space, in which activities were more sedentary and solitary – playing music, using the computer or watching TV, though being on the phone was also popular as both a private and social activity.

The importance of private space

The words ‘relaxing’ and ‘worry free’ were often used to describe favourite places. This is a comment not only upon the sanctuary that the places of withdrawal represent, but also upon the environmental settings and life experiences that bother teenagers, and from which 93% of year 11 and 12 students said they like to take ‘time out’. We need to know more about what precisely are these ‘bothersome’ things and people, and the extent to which being bothered is intruding upon some young people’s lives and learning. The space/time compressed world in which we now live (Harvey 1989) appears to make the need for ‘time out’ more urgent for many young people (Abbott-Chapman 2000) as they struggle to make sense and meaning of a world which sometimes, to them, appears threatening and chaotic.

Research also suggests some students use anti-social and risky means of achieving ‘time out’ through becoming ‘spaced out’ by binge drinking and drug taking. There have also been recent suggestions that young people’s use of digital technology and escape to the virtual worlds created by the internet are other expressions of this need for personal space. The search to provide students with more positive and sustaining ways of taking ‘time out’ must surely be a priority.

If, as we suppose, the findings from Tasmania are more generally true of young people’s preferences for places of retreat, they may help to extend our understanding of circumstances and settings that support and strengthen their mental and physical wellbeing. School principals may, for example, consider whether there are sufficient ‘quiet’ places in the school, such as a library, reading room or hobby room, to which, at certain times, students are allowed or encouraged to retreat and engage in creative and reflective activities, and in which students feel comfortable, relaxed and ‘safe’ from pressure. In addition, are there further ways in which experiences of the natural environment may be encouraged through nature walks or development of school gardens or ‘farm/school’ links, where students from primary school age onwards may gain ‘hands on’ contact with living things? Activities in the natural environment, including outdoor and ‘adventure’ education, have been found to be very beneficial in assisting learning and resilience of troubled and ‘at risk’ youth. This research suggests that we should extend these benefits to the wider student community. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Joan Abbott-Chapman is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania, in Australia.

 

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