David Horsey

It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw, drawn in response to the US's draconian, standardized, test-bloated 2002 No Child Left Behind Education Act.

The cartoon is by David Horsey and shows a classroom of miserable students diligently being brain-fed test prep material while one student is standing at the window looking out at a vibrant world of arts, physical education, and nature, her teacher urging her back to her desk with, you don't want to be a child left behind, do you? Sounds good to me, the student replies.

The tech industry messaging differs in its level of threat, but I feel that student.

Please, leave me so far behind that you forget I'm up at my stepfather's off-grid cabin, waiting in the creek and watching marsh hawks and sandhill cranes, a thunderstorm rolling all day along the John Long Mountains, and the wood-fired cooking stove taking an hour to boil water.