Damon Defends Teachers Against “Sh!tty Cameraman” Most teachers across America are still enjoying a bit of summer vacation. In this free time, they can begin piecing together one of those Chuck Norris Facts lists about a new educator hero: Matt Damon. “Matt Damon created fire by rubbing two ice cubes together.” –Tim Kramer, science teacher “The Black Eyed Peas were called ‘The Peas’ until they met Matt Damon.” –Joy Fife, music teacher “Matt Damon is the reason Waldo is hiding.” –Tony Whalen, history teacher So here’s a completely out-of-context clip of Matt Damon being interviewed by ReasonTV’s Michelle Fields at the Save Our Schools March in Washington DC this past weekend. Damon showed up to support public school teachers, who rallied against No Child Left Behind testing policies and inequality in public schools. Fields and her cameraman tried to mix it up with Damon — “hey, maybe if we pwn Will Hunting it’ll go viral” — but the shorn actor wasn’t having any of it. Watch this backfire: </noscript> Well, how about them apples? Matt Damon just served the “shitty” cameraman. Now, before we just throw the stamp of approval on this and move on, it is fair to say there are bad teachers in America. Maybe not 10 percent like the cameraman’s imagined statistic, but there certainly are educators who have tenure but shouldn’t. You know which other professions have bad apples? All of them. There are bad teachers, there are bad cops, there are bad firemen, there are bad bus drivers, there are bad stock traders, there are bad real estate brokers, there are bad meteorologists. Every profession must sift through the crap. People who are bad at their job exist everywhere. But to vilify *all* teachers based on the worst among them, which is what the anti-union crowd is hellbent on doing, is just about the cheapest shot you can take. It’s beneath rational argument. It’s low-hanging fruit. We need good teachers. Good teachers can get through the year’s entire required curriculum plus another half, whereas bad teachers might not cover 50 percent of the required curriculum. Our kids lose with bad teachers. Should unions protect the small percentage of bad teachers that do nothing to educate our kids? No. But should all good teachers be lumped in with the bad, especially when our national testing standards are a joke? Of course not. We need policy discussion, we need alternatives, we need vision. We don’t need the peanut gallery trying to play Gotcha! with celebrities. If ReasonTV and the anti-union crowd wants to discuss policy alternatives to educating the next generation, they should do it, loudly and rationally. This pathetic attempt, however, is utter silliness. For more context from the day, here’s Matt Damon’s headlining speech: </noscript> And here’s some more of ReasonTV’s coverage of the Save Our Schools rally: </noscript> RELATED: HyperVocal and Pencils of Promise are joining forces to educate children around the world. During the first part of our partnership, HV will donate the cost of a pencil to PoP for every “LIKE” on our Facebook page. Our ultimate goal is to build an entire school. We want to give PoP as much as possible, so please “like” our page and spread the word. Let’s make the next generation a hyper-literate one…
ethan 02.08.11 @ 3:23 pm i know matt damon does mean well. who doesn’t want to help our failing education system? but the irony is that he hits the nail on the head (just not how he thinks) in stating there’s a problem in taking an “intrinsically paternalistic view of problems that are much more complex than that” eggggggxactly. so why do we have (and why are you supporting, matt) top-down, central planned, unionized school system? that is the absolution definition of applying a paternalistic solution to a really complex problem. further, he says that “[teachers] take a shitty salary and really long hours” and concludes the ONLY reason for this must be that they love it. again, it’s a really complex problem, and he’s applying a super simplistic (non-causal) conclusion. also can we see some evidence, matt, or, like a politician, do we have to take your word for it? there’s lots of reason people go into the profession: sure, they may love teaching (or have loved it at some point before being numbed by 3 decades of it), but we can’t simply ignore amazing benefits, amazing job security, summers off, etc simply because it conflicts with the general view that teachers are purely altruistic. i’ve been a teacher, come from a family of teachers, and known and worked with dozens more. this is still a small sample size of course, but in my experience closer to 50% of teachers either suck at their job or are mediocre at best. some may try hard, some do not. some don’t even want to do it but are pigeonholed by having a degree in education, or have been in too long to switch careers. either way, thanks to the constructs of the system, it’s an extremely hard thing to be good at it. so really, matt’s just barking up the wrong tree. don’t work to put a bandaid on a broken system. blow the whole thing up and start over.
Epistemic Box 03.08.11 @ 5:46 pm In case you missed, it they were rallying against NCLB, among other things. That’s a serious “top-down, centrally-planned” problem: education funding based on Bush-era standards and expensive examinations. NCLB is unrealistic, unreliable, and in many cases- unfair. You may also want to know that in addition to small sample size syndrome, your argument regarding half of teachers being mediocre at best is a statistical goof. Of course, every profession has a bottom 10% and a middle 50% and a top 10%. Teachers aren’t any different; to suggest that roughly half are mediocre isn’t an argument for… anything. In addition, most teachers self-report altruistic reasons for wanting to become a teacher: “having had a good teacher in the past,” “changing the world,” “influencing the next generation,” and “wanting to give back to society” are commonly listed reasons in the literature; good salary and benefits are even noted. It may be that many teachers eventually change their minds. I’m sure that some are “pigeonholed by having a degree in education or have been in too long to switch careers.” But this degree in education, training, certification in the field of teaching, and other prerequisites are quite a hurdle and may not transfer easily into other fields. Since education is treated worldwide as at least partly a public good with positive market and social externalities and the hurdles to becoming a teacher are nontrivial, it follows that teachers should be both protected and paid more than what the market will bear. The reason.tv people argue the opposite line: that teachers will work better without job security and if schools are managed as private companies. Unfortunately, this particular blend of libertarian thought doesn’t match with the well-established realities of market externalities. That’s why every first and second world country subsidizes and pays for public education in some way. He was right to blow this guys off.
Valerie Pacino 03.08.11 @ 6:57 pm the problem with schools is a policy-driven obsession with standardized tests.
William Turner 15.09.12 @ 10:30 pm After reading the post you responded to, I had made up my mind to respond. The only problem is that you said it so perfectly that I would’nt try to improve it.