(LI SHIGONG)

Before this year's national college entrance examination, a middle school in Zhenjiang, a city of east China's Jiangsu Province, established a room for students to take out their negative emotions, such as stress, sorrow and anxiety, to enable a better frame of mind when sitting exams.

In the room, there is a wall covered with soft sponge, which students can hit hard without harming themselves. In the middle of the room is a sandbag for students to hit wearing boxing gloves. There are also cute or ugly dolls students can throw onto the floor if they are angry or to hold in their hands if they want to cry.

The establishment of the emotional release room in the school has caused wide debate on whether a school needs to establish such a special room. It is not the first of its kind in China. Early in 2005, Southwest Jiaotong University set up a room for emotional release in its campus and, in following years, many universities and middle schools followed the trend and established this kind of room for students to release negative emotions.

Supporters of those rooms say an emotional release room is a special treatment for negative emotions, such as anger, stress, sorrow. In the room, by releasing negative emotions in a harmless way through symbolic objects, one can ease one's emotions without harming anyone in the real world. Establishing those rooms help students who have psychological problems release negative emotions without doing harm to others and avoids possible bigger problems in the future.

But, opponents say we all have rainy days and we should rely on rational ability and self-control to adjust ourselves. It's not an ideal way of solving students' problems by letting them release negative emotions through hitting imaginary enemies. This won't help solve deep-rooted psychological problems and may even add to any inclination for violence.

Good method

Xia Chundi (Zhenjiang Daily): The emotion release room will help reduce stress on students who have been under great pressure for a long time. Students, facing big events like the national college entrance examination, are apt to have negative emotions, such as stress, which can cause very serious consequences if not dealt with properly. I think this is why the middle school in Zhenjiang set up an emotion release room for students to release negative emotions and give them a better mood for the exam. Besides, other psychological educational facilities, such as a consulting room, were established in the school as well for students to cope with stress. It's good for students.

Zhu Mingmin (www.xinhuanet.com): Because of stress from school study, the employment pressure and high expectations from families, students are likely to have psychological problems, such as weak hearts and not being able to cope with stress.

Besides a room for releasing emotions, schools also need to set up music rooms, counseling rooms or psychology classes. By releasing negative emotions in these rooms, students can have a higher-quality school life.

Wen Shenghui (www.xinhuanet.com): The changing social environment are asking more from students in China. They have to get a job or obtain certain certificates through fierce competitions. Students are more likely to be stressed and anxious. When they can't handle the stress, they can go to the room to release as many negative emotions as possible, get all sweaty and come out feeling much better.

Ning Weiwei (www.cn525.cn): For college students, although they have received higher education, they still have less self-control and social responsibility. Besides, at university students might encounter failed relationships, tough situations related to job hunting and bad relationships with roommates. Therefore, they need a legal and rational way to express and release negative and irrational emotions. Besides, other complementary assistance will help solve their psychological problems.

Those schools having emotion release rooms said when students come out of the room, they feel relieved and happy. After they have let out negative emotions, teachers will talk to them and give them psychological consultation.