I don't know if you remember this, but when Sid worked on Syriana, he spent considerable time with Matt Damon and was impressed by how intelligent, informed and concerned Matt was.

This weekend Matt Damon flew himself to Washington DC to address a rally of teachers protesting cuts in education funding. Some of his speech was on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnel" but it was Matt's extemporaneous take down of an interviewer who was pushing the line that security makes teachers lazy and the only way to have good teachers is if they can be fired at any time that pleased O'Donnel even more.

Lawrence O'Donnel said Matt Damon's speech was the most important one given this weekend in Washington D.C. Certainly the teachers were glad of his support and cheered his speech often. Matt Damon not only stood up for teachers but for public education -- both of which are under attack by Washington politicians just now.

Carol

I am so glad that there are people who still believe in sanity -- and not the views of this horrible interviewer! Strange but this does stir up feelings I almost forgot that I had.

My mum was a teacher on and off for much of her life, and didn't enjoy it at all. We were living in Tasmania at a time when the government there instituted a similar policy, of firing or shifting many "Temporary" teachers simultaneously, with little to no warning, and as a result many (including Mum, who never liked teaching high school) became stressed and irascible. Of course, me being "trouble" at the time, more often than not we'd both end up venting on each other.

Threatening the security of teachers' careers does nothing to improve their performance as teachers, and nor is having a grumpy parent, afraid for their job, any good at all for their families at home.

Here's the interview...

One of my friends had a link to it on facebook -- Cheers for telling us about that Carol.