DESE room diagrams

Each week, the Commissioner sends to all of the superintendents in Massachusetts and all of the Department's staff an "On The Desktop" memo, which later gets posted over here. By virtue of the Commissioner's position and those with whom he communicates, these messages are public documents.
I was sent this week's message, which went out Thursday evening ahead of the holiday weekend. The accompanying presentation is shared ahead of a session this coming week on arranging classrooms. I have posted this presentation here; I shared it as a Twitter thread here, and as a Facebook album here, those all shared without commentary (intentionally). Below are screenshots of the slides.
The opening slides are as follows:

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I want to take a step back here and talk about what this is: we're in the middle of a pandemic, one that is not only killing people, but is leaving others with lifetimes of aliments; we have the worst economic crisis (consequently) that the country (the world?) has seen since 1930; we are scrambling to figure out how to best educate children while protecting not only their health but their teachers and other staff's health and their families' health...

...and the Department thinks that the most crucial contribution that they can make at this point is telling us how to arrange desks?

REALLY?

Let's call this what it is: it has been widely noted that DESE's reopening guidance is poorly supported, the first several districts (led by Lexington) have pushed back--let's note that Amherst Pelham wins best headline--

...and now the response from the state is "you just don't know how to arrange your desks correctly."

Condescending much?

I've started a thread over here of things DESE could be doing that would be useful rather than creating PowerPoints and having presentations on seating charts. I'm happy to take further suggestions, as I think there is a real role for the state here.

On to the diagrams:

Let's remember the ground rules under which DESE guidance is playing:

1. Six feet apart "if feasible" thus all of the below plans are three feet apart (from edge of seat to edge of seat)
2. Students will be moving minimally, if at all, over the course of the day, and will be facing the same direction

And here are the diagrams they have shared: 

I would urge you to consider these from several perspectives:

First, given what we know of COVID, does these feel safe to you?
Here is why that matters: it's hard to learn if you don't feel safe. If this doesn't feel safe, then it is not going to make nearly as much difference to have kids back in schools.

Second, consider the logistics of this: the students don't simply appear in these seats: they must walk there. How does each student get to that seat without crossing paths with others? And where is the teacher during that time? 

Third, once there, what happens? If the student in the back needs to use the restroom, does that whole line and the one next to it empty into the hall? Or is the space only "feasible" if no one needs to use the restroom or visit the nurse?

Fourth, how does this work as a learning environment? Every student spaced, facing frontwards, and cannot move or turn....

...which of course reminds me: have you met children? Or even people? I don't think adults could stay in these seats, facing entirely frontwards, for hours at a time.

Where is the teacher instructing? How does that teacher check student work? They can't pass papers up; they can't hand things from one to another. The teacher can't go to the back of the room. How does that work?
And of course, there's no group work, no pairing up, no talking to the person next to you...much of the good work of learning is gone.

Fifth, all of this furniture you're moving out is going...where, exactly, since we're using our libraries, gyms, cafeterias, and more as classrooms, and we need our hallways as wide as possible for passing safely? 

Sixth, where do these classrooms of students eat lunch? The guidance is clear that if the masks are off, as they must be to eat (of course), they must be spaced six feet apart. These desks are three feet apart. Are half the students going elsewhere for lunch? Where, if their cafeteria is now classroom space? 

Seventh, look back up at those diagrams.
Now talk to me about kindergarten.

Or computer science.

Or lab sciences.
Or art class.
Or music class. 

I could go on (and on and on) at length about how impractical and poorly focused this is, but I won't, because I think that would be repeating DESE's error here.
Halve each of those classrooms--that would be six feet again--and we're getting somewhere. That's that many fewer bodies, that much less to manage, that much greater ability to work with students with compassion and understanding, that much greater ability for teachers to do the good work that is missed when students aren't with their teachers. 

Spend some of that energy then figuring out how you align staff with students such that someone else (not the same teacher) is working with the students who are at home, rotationally.
Doing all of this while balancing family schedules, teacher and staff health needs and schedules, the ongoing tech and training gaps, the cleaning and nursing needs, and how we're going to pay for all of this is going to take a LOT of logistical work over the next several weeks.

We don't have time to be pushing desks around.