Like Teachers, Matt Damon Doesn't Work Harder Because of Job Insecurity Fears
· Matt Damon is an outspoken political activist, and at the Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC last weekend, he did some outspeaking. When asked a silly question about whether a lack of job security makes him work harder as an actor -- a roundabout way of saying that teachers should have less job security themselves -- Damon replied, "You think job insecurity is what makes me work hard? It's not an incentive, I want to be an actor." Things unravel from there, though -- unfortunately -- Damon did not regurgitate Gordon Wood in his dress-down. Click through to watch. Your Tuesday Buzz Break is here.
[via Raw Story]
· Nurse 3D -- the most surprising non-porn title since Bad Teacher -- has added 30 Rock co-star Katrina Bowden to the cast opposite Paz de la Huerta. Bowden will play a killer nurse, obvs. [Deadline]
· The highest-earning actor in Hollywood just did some more earning. Leonardo DiCaprio film a series of Inception-y ads for Chinese cell phone company Oppo. Make money, money, money, money. [AdWeek]
· Michael Ross will rewrite the futuristic Robin Hood project that Warner Bros. is planning. To answer your question: yes, there is a futuristic Robin Hood project in development. [Deadline]
· The awesome Elizabeth Banks wrote a female comedy script called What About Barb?, about a bride who winds up with a crazy relative as her bridesmaid. Sounds sorta like Bridesmaids, right? It even included a bathroom scene. "[T]he studio execs were like, 'People don't want to see girls doing that.' And I was like, 'I'm writing from experience! You go to a club and you have to wait in a huge line, so people double up. And, yes, you think you're only going to take a little pee, but sometimes some poops come out.'" Not that Banks has any hard feelings. "We never got the pooping scene as right as they got it in Bridesmaids." [New York]
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Comments
Wow. Damon really comes across as an arrogant child in this. The question is pretty valid one. Has Damon just forgotten where he came from? I mean, does he not remember being a less well known actor whose lack of job security helped push him to decide to write a script with a starring role for himself (along with Ben Affleck) to improve his career? Nothing is worse than an arrogant know-it-all who really isn't all that smart. He hides his ignorance behind his celebrity, but any smart person can see right through it. But what could he do? He's at an event shilling for a teacher's union. As if accountability (something found in every other industry except politics and education) is so ridiculous to ask of our teachers. We send the message to our teachers that they don't have to be accountable for their performance, yet they are turning around teaching our children to be accountable students? Tenure is a friggin crime.
- Jakey
"Nothing is worse than an arrogant know-it-all who really isn't all that smart."
Fair enough. Applies to internet commenters as well.
My sentiments exactly.
If you have something intelligent to add, feel free. If you have only cynicism, I'm sorry to hear about your wasted lives.
-Jakey
My best friend is a teacher. She has tenure. That doesn't give her job security however because she works in a "right to work" state. That doesn't concern her. She loves her kids - believe me, every day I have to hear her talk about them, and even when they misbehave (she's a third grade teacher), she still holds on to the idea that one of her children went from an A reading level to an H level in just one year, or that they are learning math and science and so much more. She teaches because she cares.
Are all teachers perfect? Of course not. I worked for eight years in the school system and I can tell you there are some people who should never have become teachers. But they are very definitely the exception. Most teachers work 50-60 hours a week throughout the year. When their summer "vacation" comes around, they're still required to attend various conferences and instructional meetings. And they are paid ridiculously low salaries. I didn't graduate college and I make $10,000 plus more than my friend, who's been teaching for 18 years, and I'm not exactly rolling in the wealth myself.
You want teachers to be accountable? Grade them on how much they teach their students, not on whether their kids pass standardized tests that are not developed to help kids but determine if schools will be funded.
As for your pathetic "wasted lives" comment, Jakey, my real name is Tommy Marx. I live in Wichita KS. You can actually look up my phone number online if you are so inclined. Because I stand behind every comment I make. If I don't think I have something to add to the conversation, whether funny or serious, I don't comment. And I NEVER hide behind an anonymous internet label.
You come across as a dick. If that is cynical, I apologize. If that also comes across as truthful, I don't.
Thanks for getting up on your soap box and preaching. I also stand behind my comments. My ideas are solid. Nothing you stated in your response negates my original comments. If your teacher friend is as good as you say she is, why does she need tenure? Why does any good teacher need tenure? Tenure only protects those who shouldn't be teaching. I agree with your comment on accountability not needing to come from standardized tests. Don't know why you would assume that I am pro standardized testing (probably comes from your inherent self righteous nature which has lead you to make quick assumptions). I would applaud any sort of fair teacher evaluation if it ensured that children receive the best education possible. But supporting the concept of tenure does NOT ensure that children receive the best education possible. Feel free to bring something to the conversation that indicates otherwise.
You say yourself, "I worked for eight years in the school system and I can tell you there are some people who should never have become teachers." Thank you for giving first hand testimony that supports my viewpoint that "tenure is a friggin crime."
I'm not sure what all that ranting is about your name (although I hope you have more in common with Richard than with Karl). In today's world where your identity can be stolen, you may not want to reveal it so flippantly. Strong ideas guide debate and discussion. I too stand behind everything I've said and would have no problem discussing it with you in real life.
I especially stand behind my comments on cynicism. Cynicism adds nothing to society. And I'm absolutely sincere in that belief.
-Jakey
Jakey, would you mind giving me some reasons why tenure is a friggin crime, or how it differs in any way from any other job where, if you work long enough, you're practically guaranteed employment?
You say Matt Damon comes across as arrogant. His mom is a teacher, which is probably why he is not only sensitive to the subject but well-versed on it. Why else would he be at a union event?
Education in America sucks. It has gotten steadily worse, and the Republicans are pushing harder and harder for vouchers so the privileged white kids no longer have to learn in the same classrooms as other races or poor people. Neither party wants to improve education, and most states offer lotteries that go towards education so they don't have to pay for it.
You want to blame our abysmal failure in educating our children on tenure? Go for it. I'm not a fan of tenure either. To be honest, I've never understood it. It seems like a way to keep teachers on probation for 3-5 years to see if they jump through all the proper hoops and kiss all the right ass before they're given any job security at all.
But getting rid of tenure isn't going to change anything. We keep getting rid of teacher assistants and teachers, yet no one ever gets rid of the directors and principals and superintendents and highly-paid administrators who are sucking the system dry without benefiting one single child. You think getting rid of a teacher who is phoning it in will miraculously save all future generations when we have layer after layer after layer of bureaucracy doing everything possible to prevent teachers from doing anything offensive like teaching?
I apologize since we haven't ever talked or discussed anything, and it is hard to tell people's intentions over comments on a post about Matt Damon. But you really strike me as the kind of person who bitterly complains about how evil the soldiers are who are deployed overseas instead of recognizing that the weapons of mass destruction and the billions the vice president made, along with the leadership of a man who never served, put us into a depression that has nearly destroyed our country and killed so many of those soldiers that you complain about.
Teachers aren't the problem. I'm sorry to rock your world - although I know I'm not, based on your comments, I know you know teachers aren't the problem - but blaming tenure for the horrible state our educational system is in is naive at best.
And Jakey, I do not think J'Accuse and As were being cynical. They were calling you an arrogant know-it-all after you used that exact term. Cynicism is the mark of a lazy mind. They were instead pointing out the irony of you saying some actor was an arrogant know-it-all in a way that made you seem exactly like what you were accusing Matt Damon of being.
What it must be like to go through life having so little logic that you argue for one thing, then moments later, admit that you don't like it very much. Sounds like you have some soul searching to do.
First off, I already explained why "tenure is a friggin crime." Feel free to reread my original post about accountability. If you weren't so confused about your own positions, you would notice that you, yourself, gave reasons why tenure is a friggin crime in your own response.
"...or how it differs in any way from any other job where, if you work long enough, you're practically guaranteed employment?" Maybe you need to read up on tenure. It means you are employed for life regardless of work performance. That makes it very different from almost EVERY job. That is what the reporter asked Matt Damon to begin with. Honestly, you are strange if you don't understand that.
"Education in America sucks." Correct.
"It has gotten steadily worse, and the Republicans are pushing harder and harder for vouchers so the privileged white kids no longer have to learn in the same classrooms as other races or poor people." You obviously have never witnessed a lottery for kids to go to a voucher based charter school and seen minority parents and students weeping because, and I quote, "Now my child has a chance!" I'm no Republican, but hatred of issues without thinking about them simply because they are deemed Democrat or Republican is a major problem in this society. Try thinking for yourself on each issue. I'm for gay rights and making marriage legal for gay people. I'm for net neutrality. I'm for balancing the budget. I'm against running up huge deficits like Bush AND Obama. I'm against foreign wars (especially now that there is no second superpower), but would never hate the young men and women anyone in our military (don't know why you jumped to that conclusion, but jumping to conclusions seems to be your modus operandi). I look at each issue and THINK!!! I don't just toe any party line. How dumb would that be? Oh, right. You would end up saying things like you don't think tenure is any different from any other form of employment, but then later say you don't think tenure is all that great. Then you talk up teachers and rail on administrators (something I totally agree with), but don't realize that some teachers are part of the problem by empowering administrators through the teacher's union.
"Teachers aren't the problem. I'm sorry to rock your world - although I know I'm not, based on your comments, I know you know teachers aren't the problem - but blaming tenure for the horrible state our educational system is in (sic) is naive at best." You see, paragraphs like this show that you seem to be arguing just to argue simply because I challenged something you think you are an authority on, but the more you think about it, the more you realize that I'm not some asshole, but rather I'm an independent thinking, logic loving individual. And I never blamed tenure for the horrible state of our educational system. That's what you said. But tenure certainly plays a part. And that's not "naive, at best" as you mentioned in a cliched euphemism. That's actually common sense. The strangle hold of the unions on political hirings and firings is probably the biggest problem. Monopolies are never good (something even Republicans and Democrats agree on). Our children should come first, and they won't as long as a power hungry bureaucracy lives off the money taxpayers are trying to give to their kids and less fortunate kids in their neighborhoods. Of course, vouchers could help change that by keeping the money with the child wherever he or she goes... oops, I forgot, that's a Republican tactic to suppress minorities. Hilarious. I welcome you to sit back, read these comments, and maybe research the issues a little more before suddenly jumping on my back for making an intelligent comment about a celebrity making some very partisan and uninformed statements.
And one last comment on your cynicism thing. Their "attempt" at irony (as you think it was) was pure cynicism. Had they made any sort of comment about the ideas I put forth to show that I was a know it all who isn't very smart, well, that would be a great point of irony.
They didn't. They just didn't agree with me and made a cynical comment instead of using their brains. It's just more lazy thinking.
And if you are going to respond again, please make some good points that are actually a response to what I've put forth. Not assumptions and generalizations. You actually sound like a nice guy who just hasn't thought all of these things through.
-Jakey
Excuse me for interjecting here. This is a site about movies, not Jakey's political grandstanding.
Jakey, why don't you go post at Fox News or something like that? You seem to belong there.