Topher Morrison
PurpleSerf.com
In this video Matt Damon lashes out at lovely libertarian reporter Michelle Fields after she pointed out the sharp contrast in incentives employed in Hollywood versus those allowed in public education. In a mind melting retort Will Hunting fires back in his classic histrionic prose.
It was seemingly a very simple series of questions: "In acting there isn't job security, right?" asked Reason.TV reporter Michelle Fields of Matt Damon, referring to the fact actors do not receive tenure as public school teachers often do after a certain amount of years worked. "There's an incentive to work hard and be a better actor because you want to have a job. So why isn't it like that for teachers?"
Obviously irritated by the question Damon responded immediately, albeit he never came close to answering the why of Ms. Field's question.
You can, however, almost pinpoint the moment Damon puts his foot in his mouth (hint, at the ellipses).
While Damon asserts education policy problems are "complex" (they no doubt are) he, in almost the same breath, reduces that intricate issue to "A teacher [simply] wants to teach!" Moreover, he then naively implies that all teachers love to teach - so much for complexity.
Nick Gillespie, Ms. Fields boss and senior editor at Reason Magazine, adroitly addresses the fact public school teachers do not work longer hours compared to other professionals and while there is no doubt the average teacher's compensation is "shitty" compared to what Matt Damon rakes in, Gillespie significantly undermines Damon's argument that teachers make a "shitty salary", but in fact make a solid middle class income.
What is interesting about all of this is that in a roughly 1 minute video clip Matt Damon encapsulates roughly the entire constellation of assumptions public education apologists proffer the American people.
1. MBA style thinking has no place in public education administration.
2. Incentives have no place in motivating educators to become better.
3. All teachers love to teach as if being knighted educator somehow imbues the
recipient with altruistic motives unknown to mere self-interested mortals and
persists until either death or twilight years remove them from the classroom.
4. When we speak of supporting "teachers" what we mean is "public educators."
The real crux of this debate isn't based on reason (no pun intended), but many times on pure emotion. More often than not the arguments surrounding public education reform are ultimately reduced to two things: fond memories of excellent motivating teachers and needy students for whom public education is designed.
Warm fuzzies of motivating teachers aside, there are awful ones that aught to be removed, but cannot without great public expenditure. Even after taxpayers are bled dry the effort invariably results in failure, especially if the teacher is tenured. When it comes to needy children, public funds may still be applied, the argument is over how.
There is a growing mountain of evidence that under various decentralized models, outside the control of Washington DC, the Department of Education, state education boards, and unified school districts that student achievement is improved, the availability of quality education is increased, classroom size is reduced, and a higher degree of flexibility and fulfillment is offered to educators.
At the end of the clip, the Reason.TV cameraman claims "10 percent of teachers are bad" to which Damon jokingly fires back "Maybe your a shitty cameraman, I don't know." In an interview with the Washington Post Ms. Fields responded: "If our cameraman was underperforming we would fire him." It is too bad we can't say the same for most public school teachers.
Here is the video at GLTeachers on YouTube titled "Matt Damon defends teachers against a [expletive] cameraman!"(1.4 million views as of this post). Reason.TV's video under the innocuous title "What We Saw at the Save Our Schools Rally in Washington D.C." garnered only 104,000.
Reason.TV's video:
GL Teachers video:
PurpleSerf.com
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| Matt Damon and Michelle Fields of Reason.TV. Image Source: Reason.TV |
It was seemingly a very simple series of questions: "In acting there isn't job security, right?" asked Reason.TV reporter Michelle Fields of Matt Damon, referring to the fact actors do not receive tenure as public school teachers often do after a certain amount of years worked. "There's an incentive to work hard and be a better actor because you want to have a job. So why isn't it like that for teachers?"
Obviously irritated by the question Damon responded immediately, albeit he never came close to answering the why of Ms. Field's question.
“You take this MBA style thinking, right? It’s the problem with ed policy right now! It's this intrinsically paternalistic [hu?] view of problems that are much more complex. It's like saying a teacher is gonna get lazy when they have tenure...A teacher wants to teach! Why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job, unless you really love to do it?”
While Damon asserts education policy problems are "complex" (they no doubt are) he, in almost the same breath, reduces that intricate issue to "A teacher [simply] wants to teach!" Moreover, he then naively implies that all teachers love to teach - so much for complexity.
Nick Gillespie, Ms. Fields boss and senior editor at Reason Magazine, adroitly addresses the fact public school teachers do not work longer hours compared to other professionals and while there is no doubt the average teacher's compensation is "shitty" compared to what Matt Damon rakes in, Gillespie significantly undermines Damon's argument that teachers make a "shitty salary", but in fact make a solid middle class income.
What is interesting about all of this is that in a roughly 1 minute video clip Matt Damon encapsulates roughly the entire constellation of assumptions public education apologists proffer the American people.
1. MBA style thinking has no place in public education administration.
2. Incentives have no place in motivating educators to become better.
3. All teachers love to teach as if being knighted educator somehow imbues the
recipient with altruistic motives unknown to mere self-interested mortals and
persists until either death or twilight years remove them from the classroom.
4. When we speak of supporting "teachers" what we mean is "public educators."
The real crux of this debate isn't based on reason (no pun intended), but many times on pure emotion. More often than not the arguments surrounding public education reform are ultimately reduced to two things: fond memories of excellent motivating teachers and needy students for whom public education is designed.
 |
| A film written by David Guggenheim and Billy Kimball shows the explosive new world of education spreading across America. A must see for everyone interested in education policy. Image Source: WaitingforSuperman.com |
There is a growing mountain of evidence that under various decentralized models, outside the control of Washington DC, the Department of Education, state education boards, and unified school districts that student achievement is improved, the availability of quality education is increased, classroom size is reduced, and a higher degree of flexibility and fulfillment is offered to educators.
At the end of the clip, the Reason.TV cameraman claims "10 percent of teachers are bad" to which Damon jokingly fires back "Maybe your a shitty cameraman, I don't know." In an interview with the Washington Post Ms. Fields responded: "If our cameraman was underperforming we would fire him." It is too bad we can't say the same for most public school teachers.
Here is the video at GLTeachers on YouTube titled "Matt Damon defends teachers against a [expletive] cameraman!"(1.4 million views as of this post). Reason.TV's video under the innocuous title "What We Saw at the Save Our Schools Rally in Washington D.C." garnered only 104,000.
Reason.TV's video:
GL Teachers video:
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