I met Bill de Blasio once, in March 2016, four years before he was being cursed every night for his spineless defense of police who senselessly beat bystanders and run over protesters in SUVs, before calls for his resignation were ringing out on New York City’s streets.

I was part of a delegation of public education activists invited to City Hall to discuss our concerns over New York State’s high-stakes testing regime — and the mayor’s gag order policy that barred city educators from criticizing the tests. We were ushered into the famous Governor’s Room, where we sat at an elegant table underneath John Trumbull’s portrait of Alexander Hamilton. One of us brought the mayor pastries from his favorite Park Slope bakery as a gesture of goodwill.

But once the meeting started and de Blasio realized that we weren’t starstruck by our surroundings but were in fact deeply concerned about the damages of over-testing, the atmosphere in the room changed dramatically.