NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

You may have heard the biblical story about King Solomon. Two women claim a baby is theirs. King Solomon the wise says cut the baby in half and let them share it. One woman says sure, go ahead. The other says no, give it to the other woman. King Solomon then gives the baby to the second woman, since she is the only one concerned with the baby's welfare.

Of course, the notion of cutting a human in pieces is barbaric and unthinkable. Perhaps in those days it wasn't such a big thing. Who knows?

Here's one thing I know--Were Bill de Blasio sitting in that chair he'd have cut the baby into 2, 3, 4 or even 5 pieces. That way it could multitask, and the mayor seems to highly value that ability.

Otherwise, why would he be pushing a program that has teachers breaking their classes into multiple cohorts but teaching only one at a time? Let's not get extreme here, and point to outliers. Let's be conservative and point only to schools the mayor acknowledged, with up to three cohorts.

Let's say I have a class of 34. Let's say my classroom is 680 square feet. At 65 square feet per human, I can fit ten in that room, with 30 feet left over to frolic and romp in between periods. That would mean, actually, that I would need to break my class into four groups. Of course, there is always the possibility that some of those students would choose to utilize remote learning. If 20/% of my students choose to do that, I've got 26 or 27 left, and I can see them once every three days.

Let's say I teach 5 classes of 45 minutes every day. That means I will see about 9 students per class, leaving one spot for a paraprofessional. What are the other 18 students CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio