Matt Damon speaks at Save our Schools rally... condemned “punitive policies” that harm teachers.

[madfloridian]

From Think Progress today. It was good to see someone like Matt Damon take time to fly in to encourage public schools teachers.

Matt Damon: Stop The War On Teachers

Actor and activist Matt Damon spoke at the Save Our Schools rally today. Before he spoke, Damon granted ThinkProgress an exclusive interview. We asked him about how teachers unions are being demonized in much of the media and teachers are being blamed as the root of all problems in public education. Damon told us that the attacks on teachers unions are part of a larger “war on unions over the last decade” and condemned “punitive policies” that punish teachers without looking at the social factors that lead to student achievement.

More from his speech from the blog called NOT Waiting for Superman

Matt Damon’s speech at the Save Our Schools rally, July 30, 2011

I flew overnight from Vancouver to be with you today. I landed in New York a few hours ago and caught a flight down here because I needed to tell you all in person that I think you’re awesome.

I was raised by a teacher. My mother is a professor of early childhood education. And from the time I went to Kindergarten through my senior year in high school I went to Public Schools. I wouldn’t trade that education and experience for anything. I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself— my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity— all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned— none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success— none of these qualities that make me who I am… can be tested.

I said before that I had incredible teachers. And that’s true. But it’s more than that. My teachers were EMPOWERED to teach me. Their time wasn’t taken up with a bunch of test prep— this silly drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn’t promote real learning. No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

I know just what he means. I remember that time well while I was still teaching. Creativity in reaching a child was valued, and together with the parents that moment when a kid suddenly "got it". It was an awesome moment. There's not a lot of time for that anymore with all the testing.

This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can’t imagine how demoralized you must feel. But I came here today to deliver an important message to you: as I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I’m not alone. There are millions of people just like me.

So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “over-paid”; the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything…

Please know that there are millions of us behind you.

Good for him for taking time to be there. Glad to see his passion and understanding for what teachers are going through.

This should go down as a shameful time in our country...a time when public education and public school teachers were mocked and criticized for the ulterior motives of profit and privatization.

[badhair77]

1. thanks for the links

did not realize his mother is an education professor

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Starry Messenger]

3. What a sweetie!

That's nice to hear.

[madfloridian]

9. He impresses me a lot.

:hi:

[Tansy_Gold]

4. My heroes have always been teachers. +a million for them

Patricia Quast
Charles C. Schlereth
Stanley Grabarek
Everett Charlier
Mary Ellen Grasso
Betty J. Cobb
Douglas K. Murphy
Norma Snap
Arthur Brownell
Roland Goins
Kenneth Watters

and yes, even
Vivian Miles, because even though I couldn't stand the old battle-axe, as we called her, she drilled grammar and punctuation and syntax into us that I've never forgotten.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. K&R n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

6. When one kid finally "got it"

Oh, man, did that phrase resonate!

In the fall of 1962 I was an eager high school freshman. I'd always done well in math, even when "new math" was introduced when I was in eighth grade, so I was enrolled in a "fast" algebra class. Our textbook was a cheaply bound collection of 8 1/2 x 11 typed pages from the UICSM, or University of Illinois Committee on School Mathematics. Our school was had been selected as a "test" school for this new algebra program. Our teacher, Mr. Brendan Flynn, had received maybe a little bit of training over the summer on how to teach this new stuff, but often he was as confused as the rest of us.

The main problem was that the UICSM hadn't explained some of the concepts very well, at least not for me. When I asked for additional explanation, all I got was a repetition of what was in the book, but that was what had confused me in the first place. The more I begged for explanation, the more confused I got. My dad, an engineering technician, tried to help me, but he didn't understand "new math" at all, and his concepts from traditional algebra were completely foreign to me. Algebra was required for the college preparatory program I was in, so there was no getting out of it.

After a semester of struggling with the UICSM program and feeling that I had learned absolutely nothing, I finagled a transfer to an "average" level standard Algebra I class, taught by Arthur Brownell. Unfortunately, I was even more lost in that class than I had been in Mr. Flynn's. I was a semester behind everyone else. If the class had been taught in Greek, I couldn't have been more confused.

My dad was able to help me a little bit, but he worked several nights a week and I had homework every night, so I just kept falling further and further behind. I did the homework to the best of my ability every single night, I paid attention in class -- Brownell was an engaging teacher, cheerful, chubby, with a blond crewcut -- but nothing seemed to work. I came in after school frequently for extra help, but the concepts just weren't reaching me.

Somehow or other I managed to keep from failing, but how I did that I still don't know. By the end of the year, however, as the concepts became more complex and my knowledge of the basics was so fragile that it simply wouldn't sustain the more advanced information, I was in serious trouble. It wasn't just that I might actually fail the class; more important, I wouldn't be able to get into more advanced classes. Finally, the last day of class before final exams, Brownell took me aside and said, "The best I can give you for the quarter is a C based on the fact that you've done all the homework and made it through the quizzes and tests. But the only way I can give you a B for the semester and get you into a 'fast' level geometry class next year is if you get a really high A on the final. I'm sorry; I know you've worked hard but it has to be on the grades."

I thanked him and said I understood. I was all of 14 1/2 years old. I felt as if my entire academic future was on the line.

That night, while I was studying that stupid frustrating algebra, Everything. Suddenly. Clicked. I don't know what it was, but it was there, all of a sudden, like the proverbial bolt of lightning. I walked into that classroom to take the final with all the confidence in the world. In those days before calculators, when we had to do our own calculations and show all our work, I began methodically figuring out the answers to the same problems that had completely perplexed me just days ago.

Brownell had a complex cheating prevention procedure, so when I returned to his room at the end of the day to find out how I'd done, he knew I hadn't cheated. But I had one of the highest scores in the class, and pulled out a B for the semester, saving my college prep grades.

I never went a whole lot further in math, but I have never forgotten what I learned in that class, especially the dedication of Art Brownell.

:yourock: Mr. Brownell!



TG

[madfloridian]

7. I love that story!

I had a teacher like that....but it was in 7th grade composition. I finally got the noun, verb, preposition, dangling and otherwise, and even adverbs. It was like a light came on. She just had a way of making things clear.

[madfloridian]

8. YvonneCA has the video up in the Education forum. Link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=219&topic_id=33704&mesg_id=33704

[midnight]

10. It's nice to hear from children who's parents are teachers....

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. I was there. He was magnificent.

So was the event.

Little or no institutional ( i.e. union) support.

Just 4,000 of the most serious, dedicated , generous people on the planet.

They ( we) will not let go.

Hardest of the hard core.

And I met Mr. Teachbad!

For real!

http://teachbad.com/?p=973

[madfloridian]

15. Mr. Teachbad...isn't he the one who got fired for being controversial?

http://www.anurbanteacherseducation.com/2011/07/mr-teachbad-fired.html

Or was it a joke?

[Smarmie Doofus]

23. No joke, MF. He's very much unemployed.

I didn't know about the firing... only knew the blog is *great*.

Yes the firing was political. Rhee, et al in DC. Yuck.


He's muddling through. He's probably blacklisted in DC. Wife has a job. His spirits are high. He'll get thru and so will we.

[madfloridian]

16. Yes, he thinks he was fired in part for his blog. From WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/dc-teacher-why-i-believe-i-was-fired/2011/07/28/gIQAzF5BgI_blog.html#pagebreak

"Over two years of IMPACT, my master educator scores averaged 2.75, comfortably effective (your job is job safe). Over the same two years, my in-house evaluations averaged 2.06, comfortably minimally effective (your job is in danger). The difference is 0.69; fairly large on a scale that runs only from 1 to 4.

But the timeline is what draws my attention most. My first school-based IMPACT observation was in November 2009. I was scored effective. I started the blog one month later in December. By the end of January 2010, I had been informed that the administration was aware of my blog and reading it. This was confirmed by another source shortly after. Strategically, I suspect, the administration has never asked or confronted me about the blog.

..."Henceforth, my school-based evaluators scored me, without exception, minimally effective or ineffective. Meanwhile, the master educators continued to score me effective. One master educator this year noted how much I had improved since last year."

[SlimJimmy]

25. I'm not quite following here. On a 1-4 scale, anything less than a 3 would be a needs improvement.

How is this teacher "comfortably effective" at the 2.75 level?

[Starry Messenger]

18. You met Mr. Teachbad?

I love him, that is so cool.

[Smarmie Doofus]

24. I told him he had a small but dementedly enthusiastic following...

... on DU.

And he was aware of this.

It was all very surreal. I found myself chatting up this stranger in the crowd.... very unlike me to begin with... and he turns out to be the fabled Mr. Teachbad. We chatted and paused to hear Damon's very eloquent address. Then I wished him well. I saw him briefly again during the March to the WH... which followed shortly after Matt's speech.

Really nice guy, Teachbad. I told him he's a friggin' genius.

My son took a pic of Teachbad and me together which I'll post to ED forum soon as I can figure out how to do so.

[H2O Man]

12. Recommended.

Thank you for this.

[madfloridian]

14. Most welcome.

And thank you for your work here. :)

[Forkboy]

13. K&R

[hfojvt]

17. kinda changed his tune there

He used to say that we didn't need teachers, that we could learn on our own by going to the library. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymsHLkB8u3s

One thing about teachers though, for every good one that is remembered, probably several bad ones get remembered too, especially since bad things probably stick out more, and good things tend to be invisible. You don't see them putting in extra hours or dealing with recalcitrant parents, but you do see it when they seem to go out of their way to put you down, or when you have to sit there through boring hours of algebra or diagramming sentences or doing leg lifts in phys ed.

[cherokeeprogressive]

19. Matt Damon!

[awoke_in_2003]

20. k&r...

I agree with what he says about the way school used to be.

[LWolf]

21. k&r

[MissDeeds]

22. Wow

Two things I love most: teachers and Matt Damon. :P

His comments were wonderful, so inspiring. Thanks, madflo, for brining this to our attention.

K&R

Former public school teacher and professor, MissDeeds

[Dappleganger]

26. kicked!

[kurtzapril4]

27. Here's something else....

If it's been posted already, forgive me. Matt Damon sticks up for teachers again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFHJkvEwyhk&feature=player_embedded

[proverbialwisdom]

28. Thank you!

Great post.