You don't have to be a teacher to get it.

[Jakes Progress]

Matt Damon gets it. Here is his take on the administration's education policy.

He's doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education... the idea that we're testing kids and we're tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We're training them, not teaching them.

More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/matt-damon-calls-out-obama_n_830533.html

[MichiganVote]

1. Gets my vote, thumbs up!

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r

Good. I realize it's kind of a pipe dream, but I wish folks like him would consider doing a counter-film to Waiting for Superman.

[Jakes Progress]

4. I was really glad to read this.

With all the stuff going on, It was getting so that I feared for the intelligence of nearly everyone. Matt is a pretty bright guy, but I was glad that someone who doesn't teach for a living could see the logic of good teaching and how far away from good education our White House is taking us. Obama didn't start this crap, but he certainly shouldered the burden of the neocon education dream and has soldiered on, expanding bush's mess, fulfilling bill bennet's every dream. Is it because this crap started under reagan and Obama admires ronnie so much?

[Starry Messenger]

5. I'm glad to see him say this too.

Like you, I was starting to fear for everyone's intelligence.

I don't know what Obama's personal motivation is, but it seems like the trend of greater privatization has continued bit by bit for decades. The pressure to jump-start a market bubble to revive our crippled economy in any sector probably seems like good logic from up in the nosebleed sections of government. Those of us on the ground will just be collateral damage.

[Jakes Progress]

7. I wonder sometimes if his rough time

in schools gave him a sour attitude about teachers. At the bar - er, I mean tavern - where a lot of my discussing takes place, I run into people frequently who first mouth a few platitudes about how dedicated teachers are. Then they slowly start bad mouthing how much money they make, how little they work. You know. The stupid stuff that even they don't believe. After a while, it usually comes down to the fact that they were caught smoking in the bathroom, or caught cheating on a test or something like that. Then they carry this grudge at getting caught being less than they should be for thirty years. Makes me wonder what teacher in Hawaii caught young Barack behind the gym with a pack of smokes. For this, America loses its education system.

[Hannah Bell]

3. kr

[teacher gal]

6. You mean there is a celebrity

who actually gets it?

Yea!