Return to the Forest We Called It Home

Forest Think Tank of 15-Year-Olds

Calling for Founding Members

Along every forest trail, dappled light falls through the leaves
Let’s go back to the forest we all called home: an environmental museum project

Born in 2004, just turned fifteen, freshly graduated from junior high, stepping into my first year of senior high - what next?
What’s the aim of the traditional education system? Where should all those teens head to?

I found myself wondering: International class? Homeschool? Cram school? Experimental education? Quietly, painstakingly trying to shape myself into a craftsman of some kind?

How many languages do I speak? At what age did I finish Shakespeare’s complete works?
Where will the trajectory of my reading take me?
How many countries’ cuisines have I tasted?

In the midst of a pandemic, in which country, which city, in what kind of bewilderment are you gathering knowledge and learning how to inquire?
At that time, as a learner and humble receiver of knowledge,

When Taiwan finally had its first generation of professional mountaineers

When, standing in Tokyo Station, I saw an advertisement for Taiwan’s 2020 Year of the “Spine of the Island Mountain Range Tourism”

Is there nature writing? Is there the craft of bookmaking? Is there an independent culture of watching the book market?

Is there a course on economics and financial literacy for Taiwan’s youth?

Is there a pilgrim’s road in Taiwan?

Do we have the ability to command an unpowered boat and, through it, come to understand this island?

Last year, returning to the “Forest Home Children’s Assembly”, the small, radiant children walked their own paths, and when they stumbled, they simply sat down and made peace with the leaves beside them.

We need a platform
so that young voices can be heard within the national parks,
so that together we can create motivation and endless exploration.

We have decided: this year, 2020, we will seek
those majoring in mountains and oceans, majoring in reading, doing, and experiencing.

Fifteen-year-olds who already carry skill, design, perspective, and expertise, and who long to spread their thinking

We hope to invite them into this project:

Plants, animals, insects, feathers, ecology, sustainability, environment, psychology…
writers of the natural world, a new generation of authors and illustrators and long-time observers, practitioners, to become speakers at this forum.

And at the same time, we invite listeners

Teenagers around fifteen years old, curious, creative, hungry for knowledge, exploration, adventure, action, wandering, and new ways of observing and writing the path ahead.

As a double major in mountain and sea, believing how much you read, how much you travel.

Since beginning homeschooling three years ago, I have lived every day alongside my own identity and motivation.

My mother says I grew up between the nursery of a bookstore and the playground of mountains and sea.

Rhythm is everything; I am always, at every moment, trying to discern it.

The thing in my life I’ve treasured most is falling in love with reading, with great mountains, with the great sea, and with wondering what the world can offer

Since the pandemic broke out this year, I’ve thrown myself into practicing experience design and project planning, long-distance hiking routes, books, calendar and poster design, an insect field guide, and the planning of my own self-directed curriculum.

I must live a life where, at every single moment, there is nothing left to regret.

One of the founders of the Forest Think Tank of 15-Year-Olds:

Noah Chen (陳諾), 15 years and 9 months old