Everybody loves Matt Damon now.
Matt Damon should be loved. Matt Damon should be appreciated, and held in esteem for what he is – an heir to Paul Newman’s fiercely intelligent liberal throne. A man that populist red states will hate for preaching the truth and looking roguish doing it. A champion for the rights of teachers everywhere, slayer of injustice and dudebro to other prominent movie stars of the day. Matt Damon is the movie star movie stars wish they could be – and to top it off, he’s well spoken. Probably because of his mom.
To support his mom, a teacher, Damon spoke at the Save Our Schools march in Washington D.C. over the weekend. And you’d think a concept like saving schools and bettering the public education system would make sense to all parties involved. But no – a libertarian news organization called Reason.tv sent their camera-people there to ambush parties and promote the talking point that bad teachers are ruining the American education system. It’s not the fact that school get no funding, that everyone’s overworked, that policy-makers don’t really care about the learning process unless it shows on test-scores, it needs to be a talking point.
Damon schooled them. Enjoy the video. Lord knows I did, being from a family of underpaid educators.
Comments
Dan
August 4th, 2011 - 8:50:42 AM
I can't watch the actual video yet, so I can only go off some quotes from an article on this, but Damon reportedly said, "It's like saying a teacher is going to get lazy when they have tenure. A teacher wants to teach. I mean, why else would you take a sh--ty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it." I'm sure most teachers take the job because they want to teach. That doesn't mean they should be teaching, or that they are good at it, or that they will still want to do it for the rest of their careers. As someone who has had a number of shitty teachers in high school and college, the consistent thing I notice about them is they are old and have tenure. I've never had a crappy teacher that was a young, low paid temp without benefits that was forced to work at multiple schools just to make a living. They were all dug in old men that mumbled to the blackboard or droned on boringly and seemed to just be waiting for retirement, to the detriment of every student in their classroom. But heaven forbid they get fired for sucking at their job like most people would be.
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James
August 4th, 2011 - 3:14:14 PM
Yep. There are a lot of bad teachers who shouldn't be teaching, just like there are a bunch "bad" cops, general contractors, actors, singers, retail associates, automotive dealers, etc, etc, etc... The system needs a shift. I've had good teachers and bad teachers of all ages, at all levels. Some of my favorites were who many would consider "old farts" at the collegiate level. There's no absolute, that's for certain. It seems all professional realms are moving more toward a performance-based paradigm. Just takes time. But I love Damon schooling the failed logic of interview girl.
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brooks bayne
August 4th, 2011 - 10:28:59 PM
good god... matt damon is ignorant i might just start boycotting his movies. http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/08/03/matt-damon-thinks-that-because-he-hoards-his-money-the-rich-arent-job-creators/ even glenn beck, who most of you ppl here probably aren't fans of, was able to demolish damon's goofy nonsense without breaking a sweat. but seriously, what do you expect from the son of a leftist unionized mother? in damon's case... not much. lol! #failfiles
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Scout
August 9th, 2011 - 11:08:50 AM
Then why don't we fire the bad Police, firefighters and anyone else who does not do their job and stop allowing tenure protection for teachers who need to be fired. Matt Damon is an accomplished actor, but that does not make him a professional on any subject. And do not mistake his ability to answer questions by speaking rapidly with generalizations, for expertise on ANY subject. The only difference between asking an actor like Matt Damon for his opinion and asking any random person on the street theirs, is the number of people you could get to listen to it. And if you asked a some who acted crazy or pulled down their pants or vomited, you would get as many or more viewers for that opinion. I have been in the teaching industry for 25 years and yes Matt, the majority of teachers out there teaching are doing the best they can despite students parents and their school administrations attempts to muzzle and curb them. But, a certain percentage of teachers do start teaching because they are lazy and ignorant and generally just plain bad folks. And if they can get tenure, they can stop even pretending to be teachers and sleep in class, tell students how stupid they are, how stupid their parents are if the believe in free speeech, or how stupid black people are or how stupid white people are or any number of insanities that they happen to carry with them. What is wrong with getting rid of them? If I do not do well at my job, I get fired. I do not get protection from a tenure status. And, while were are discussing crappy things, I do not get a lifetime pension for two to four years work like my representatives either.
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