CHILDHOOD INFLUENCE Forrester’s childhood experiences on his parents’ ranch greatly influenced his actions and ideas later in life and still today. On the ranch, he had to get his hands dirty and do things himself. One of the projects he developed there as a high-school senior is now suddenly very popular: wind power. There was no electricity on the ranch, and Forrester much preferred working on mechanical things to taking care of cattle. So, he built a winddriven electrical generator.
“Wind is one of the solutions now to our oil dependency, but not the only solution. Because wind is erratic, we do not yet have a satisfactory way of storing large amounts of energy when the wind is blowing, for use when the wind is calm,” he said.
“Students need to get into the real world and do things with their hands. Learn by doing,” as he did by working on the ranch, said Forrester. “Many of today’s students are out of touch with the real world. I once taught a class at MIT on dynamics of physical and social systems. I started by asking students to explain the feedback system that adjusts the level of water in a toilet tank. I got esoteric answers like it depended on the size of water mains in the street and how far away was the water reservoir. When I inquired, I found that not one of the 30 students had ever looked inside a toilet tank.”
He also is not happy with the “No child left behind” program in K-12 schools. “There is too much emphasis on math and science being required for everyone. Some students should go into art, music, journalism— activities that don’t require high concentration in math and science,” he said.
“When you force everyone into math and science, it lowers the quality of teaching toward the average and the best students for math and science are held back. Also, learning should be fun and exciting and not driven by the fear and penalties of the present examination procedures.”
The challenge today, said Forrester, is better and effective understanding of social, political, and economic systems. “We can’t expect a more insightful public without bringing students out of high school with a good grasp of the dynamic nature of the world around them.”
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