Matt Damon Defends Teachers Against 'Sh***y' Reason.tv Cameraman (VIDEO)

Matt Damon had some strong words at last Saturday's Save Our Schools march in Washington, D.C.

Following his keynote address, the actor took offense to a Reason.tv reporter who contended that, as opposed to the environment faced by teachers in a tenure system, the lack of job security in acting functions as an incentive for hard work.

Here's what Damon had to say:

So you think job insecurity is what makes me work hard? I want to be an actor. That’s not an incentive. That’s the thing. See, you take this MBA-style thinking, right? It’s the problem with ed policy right now, this intrinsically paternalistic view of problems that are much more complex than that. It’s like saying a teacher is going to get lazy when they have tenure. A teacher wants to teach. I mean, why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it?

The interview got a little tense from there. After Damon's comments, the cameraman broke the invisible wall and chimed in: “Aren’t 10 percent of teachers bad, though? Ten percent of teachers are bad.”

When Damon's mom, a Boston-area teacher, asked where the cameraman got his numbers, he responded, "I don't know. Ten percent of people in any profession maybe should think of something else.

To which Damon struck back: “Maybe you’re a shitty cameraman.”

Matt Damon!

For more on the Save Our Schools March, click here for HuffPost's complete coverage and photos.

Scroll up to WATCH the video and check out Damon's keynote address, below.

Comments

[justlw]

09:29 PM on 08/08/2011

Kudos for the "Team America" ref.

[rjakjr]

02:35 AM on 08/08/2011

Reason dot tv is obviously trying to get in on the ambush journalism tactics made popular by the DJ Qualls lookalike that apparently fooled people as a pimp and is idolized by Faux News. Reason dot tv's website claims to be third party but is clearly right-wing slanted propaganda. Their female reporter and cameraman start feeling intimidated so they edit the video and use that bit from Good Will Hunting to try and get back at Matt Damon??? How pathetic... and of course they cut Damon off.

[robmccar88]

07:37 PM on 08/07/2011

Go on America, bash the people that make our country run. Workers, teachers, laborers, let them wither on the vine. Just as long as you don't speak ill of our countries magnificent, courageous, unquestionable class of "job creators". For when they are raking in record breaking levels of income and paying record breaking low taxes, they also need you to defend them and vote for their politicians. So go ahead, vote for your own demise.

[BCSLAVE]

01:39 PM on 08/21/2011

The people who just promote the "job creators" ignore the other half of the equation; "the buyers" If all we have is sellers and buyers are few and far between because they can't afford the sellers wares then there will be no new jobs - its good old fashion supply and demand. The depression taught that - over production and not enough buyers (low wages) spell disaster. This isn't socialism like some would say today but pure old fashion capitalism. Henry Ford knew it.

I get the feeling these one sided lovers of "sellers" are deluded with the prospect of selling to the Chinese buyers instead of domestic buyers. Guess what the Chinese market is not an open and free market - ask Rupert Murdoch how that market treated him - he lost his shirt and the company to the neo-communist party of China! Like the post above "go ahead, vote for your own demise".

[theophile]

10:12 PM on 08/06/2011

Bravo to Matt Damon. He clearly knows what teachers face by way of daily hurdles---something which I saw from the inside as a teacher's assistant during my last year of high school (1970). It made me realize what pressures an educator faces every day, and from all sides---administrators, department heads, parents, community-based pressure groups, ad nauseam. Anyone who hasn't faced that for themselves hasn't a clue what the're talking about. INCLUDING THAT CAMERAMAN AND INTERVIEWER.

[professor]

03:16 PM on 08/06/2011

Typical how the conservatives, having not a leg to stand on, stump over to attacking the messenger. A classic patheticly stewpid conservative talkingpoint ploy.

[professor]

03:15 PM on 08/06/2011

There is no job on earth more humiliating, pathetic, and degrading than pretending to teach a bunch of violent sociopathic valleygirltalking latchkey spoiled monsters who have been taught nothing but self-esteem. Stupid, sociopathic people are always full of self-esteem. Like some of the illiterate posters attacking teachers.

[Miguel Angel Aguiar]

05:31 PM on 08/05/2011

Ok, so the more and more comments I read here the more pissed off i get. Let's make this deal: If you have never taught at a public school or have had any close relatives that teach, please stop making comments about how "easy" being a teacher is. Secondly, please stop saying that teachers get paid over 50k a year... The only ones that make this high of a salary in our profession are either administrators, or teachers that have been at the same school for a really long time. Next, please stop acting like tenure is a magic shield that teachers hide behind because tenured teachers are held just as fireable as regular teachers. Finally, stop saying we get summers off, we don't, we still work. I am currently teaching music, and we work outside in the south Texas sun for hours, 2 weeks before school starts...Even if a teacher is not working on the summer, they are not getting paid for those months. The money they receive is from their overall salary, which they have requested to be stretched out over 12 months rather than just 10. If you really have no educated comments and are just talking out of our ass please stop.

[BeautifulOnDaOutside]

12:52 PM on 08/22/2011

C'mon. Everyone has gone to school. Most have been taught by dozens of different teachers. We have watched them do their jobs on a daily basis; we have talked with them at length. We know what the job entails.

No matter how you dice it, when teachers get summers off, you must take that into account when comparing their salaries with people who work throughout the year.

[Mfusion]

03:32 PM on 08/05/2011

People need to volunteer at their local public schools and see what really goes on before they jump on this union-bashing bandwagon. You might just find out that you're being misinformed by your infallible television/radio/internet sources.

Or you could just continue to be tools of Bill Gates and everyone else with a financial stake in the destruction of public schools.

[Dr EB]

08:15 PM on 08/04/2011

As a son, nephew, and cousin of those who taught on the K-12 and university levels, I have to thank Matt Damon. He said it very well in a short amount of time.

[saltpeter]

01:53 PM on 08/04/2011

That camera man is LOUSY at his job, his job is to film the interview between Matt Damon and the "journalist" (and I use that word broadly). Not to step in with his own talking points with the ditzy journalist can't do her job and her "gotcha questions" blow up in her face. BTW, if this cameraman was good at his job, he'd be in a UNION, too.

[saltpeter]

01:55 PM on 08/04/2011

Obviously the cameraman is not good at his job and not in a UNION. That's why he works for a two-bit internet fake news site with a failed ideological agenda instead of having a REAL JOB in media.

[Fonsini]

11:18 AM on 08/04/2011

To suggest that any individual is entitled to a job regardless of their performance is not simply stupid, it's delusional, and I can think of no other profession other than perhaps politics where this is true, and certainly none where it can so readily be measured.

Matt Damon, along with many other celebrities, thinks that he is far more intelligent than he actually is, fame will do that to you. I'm sure that Snooki has some forthright opinions on education too, and I'm starting to put Damon in the same intellectual category as her. Perhaps he could star in "Jersey Shore - The Movie"?, right after he finishes lecturing us on how tenure is the pillar that holds up our crumbling education system.

[Salanry]

12:50 PM on 08/04/2011

He never mentions anything about entitlement. The premise of his argument is that all serious research in the field of education shows that testing is a waste of time and resources. It won't tell you anything about that student's learning and will only make them nervous. The idea that we will place a teacher's job and school funding on such testing is ridiculous, all we are doing is putting pressure on teachers to train students how to take a test, there is no emphasis on creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, or any other higher order thinking skill.
Tenure protects educators as professionals. It was implemented in order to allow academic freedom with their students, to remove any barriers that would prevent teachers from connecting with their students. There are MANY misconceptions about tenure (teachers cannot be fired, makes them lazy, etc.) Non of which are true.

[saltpeter]

01:39 PM on 08/04/2011

He never said that. Teachers are held to far greater standards and held to far more scrutiny that most professions. In fact, the accountability for PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers far outweighs the PRIVATE SCHOOL teachers let alone the vast majority of professions.

Tenure is holding up anything. Many teachers even in public schools are NOT even in unions. In fact, those non-union teachers tend to produce the lowest producing students in the nation. Perhaps you start using some FACTS to inform your drivel.

[cristoballs]

05:51 PM on 08/04/2011

oh brother! if you're going to ask for facts, how actually using some yourself in stead of spouting of b.s. statistics.?
"the accountabi­lity for PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers far outweighs the PRIVATE SCHOOL teachers"
really, so if i don't like the public school my kid goes to, because i think the teachers there aren't doing a good job, i can enroll him in a different school, without having relocate? if i opt to send my kid to a private school, does the public school lose any money, or do my tax dollars still go to the public school even though my kid doesn't go there?
"Many teachers even in public schools are NOT even in unions." really? how many is many? most public school teachers, over 90%, belong to a union. i guess less than 10%, to you, constitutes many.
"In fact, those non-union teachers tend to produce the lowest producing students in the nation."
really? care to name names? no doubt you're probably falling victim to the correlation/causation fallacy. you look at a state that doesn't force (yes, i said force) its teachers to join a union in order to be hired, and just naturally assume that there's some link between that and that some of those states have lower testing scores, without considering every factor. i could just as easily point you at private school statistics, where joining a union isn't mandatory, and you tell me, based on your standards, which is the better system?

[panzershreckman]

10:33 AM on 08/04/2011

This guy still thinks he's "Good Will Hunting". Listen to the way he throws around those BIG words so he can confuse the "sh***y camera man and the lousy reporter. We are the Roman Empire. We idolize useless people, elevate them to GOD status and hang on every word they say while the country falls apart. Is it because your lives are that useless and hopeless that you live vicariously through the lives of celebrities? I for one will pick ONE Pat Tillman, one Mike Murphy, one Marcus Luttrell, ONE firefighter or police officer over a MILLION useless celebrities. THOSE guys are the real deal. They dont have to make believe. Matt Damon might be a good actor, but he is a lousy spokesman for the human race.

[Fonsini]

11:12 AM on 08/04/2011

Exactly.

[kernel85]

11:25 AM on 08/04/2011

So why do you have a problem with intelligent, articulate people? That you do is funny, because Pat Tillman was one of those. And I have news for you; Matt Damon may be just an actor, but he has a right to free speech just as you do. He speaks for millions of teachers, for me and millions of other people who are caring members of the human race.
I'm curious. What contribution do you make to society? Do you have the influence of a Pat Tillman or a Matt Damon?

[panzershreckman]

12:20 PM on 08/04/2011

Pat Tillman was a HERO who put others first. Matt Damon is an ACTOR who puts himself first. If he's so concerned about the poor overworked underpaid teachers, maybe he can do what Tony Danza did and become one. Don't "Talk the Talk" so to speak. I have nothing against intellectual, articulate people, would like to think of myself as one since I am college edumacated.(yes I know its spelled incorrectly) and my favorite quote is from Plato. "Wise men speak because they have something to say, fool speak because they have to say something". I'm rightly sure Matt Damon falls into the latter fool category. But I think its great that you try to besmirch me by assuming that since I don't fall to the ground and kiss the feet of your God Matt Damon that I am "Anti-intelligence". And I dont brag about what contributions I make, I dont ask for any recognition nor do I ask for any reward unlike you.

[allenglen6]

09:35 AM on 08/04/2011

I would like to think Matt for standing up for the teachers, I worked in the school system for about 4 years during the late 80's and I know the long hours and the pay is not great, to be a teacher you have to love it and want to make a change. sure there are a few bad teachers but you will find a few bad people in all jobs but the good teachers our weigh the bad. There are 4 jobs that should be the highest paid Teachers, Military, Firemen, and Policemen

[roaddawg31]

11:38 AM on 08/04/2011

I hear the "the pay is not great" thing ALL THE TIME. In Southern California, I would guess that average salary is upward of $60k. That might not be "great", but it is very much a salary one wouldn't starve on. If you are married, presumably your spouse earns a commensurate income, and your household would be doing fine. If you are single, $60k is at least respectable. That salary thing doesn't fly here in CA, especially considering the thousands who can't work AT ANY PRICE, because of your untouchable salary.

[Will737]

12:12 PM on 08/04/2011

You are comparing apples and oranges. Teachers have both a college degree and high intelligence as shown in both high school and college. Do yourself a favor. Compare the intelligence levels of teachers with the relatively low intelligence of those who make similar money. Also compare the salaries of high school teachers to the salaries of those of comparable intelligence. Then you might actually have a clue.

[SamiSam]

01:01 PM on 08/04/2011

That may be the salary of a teacher who's been teaching from 7-10 years. That's not taking into consideration the cost of living in that state and city. I know my salary as a teacher looks good on paper after teaching for 9 years, but I live in NYC where the "rent is too damn high" and after taxes 40% of my check is gone. Not to mention my insurance and SS. Thankfully, I'm single and can maintain, but God forbid if I was, like many of my coworkers, a single parent, I'll be living pretty tight. So I'd advise against throwing out numbers without mentioning other living factors.

[maddiemom]

11:11 AM on 08/05/2011

Count me as your second fan!

[BEvans]

07:26 AM on 08/04/2011

Anyone that thinks Matt Damon or anyone else in Hollywood is a role model or actually has a brain needs to be institutionalized. These people make me sick. They do nothing for society and they think they know what is best for us. The majority have little to no education and continue to think that people should listen to them and idolize them for how they are portrayed in movies. They are as shallow as they come and they would be the last people to be heard on any subject.

[Rosie Green]

08:55 AM on 08/04/2011

Matt does more for Society than the Fat Drug Addict Rush Limbaugh does. I am sure you listen to that no degree drug addicted drop out.

[Will737]

12:18 PM on 08/04/2011

It is unfair to call Rush a college "drop out". He only went to Southeast Missouri State University (which my boss at PricewaterhouseCoopers called a "school for drunks") for one semester. In spite of what my boss may have said about the school, and much to the school's credit, they flunked Rush out.

[SamiSam]

01:13 PM on 08/04/2011

You do know that he attended Harvard University and studied English (left a semester or two before graduation) right? His advocacy and charity work is doing something for society, he's definitely doing more than the average Hollywood star. He's not a tabloid staple and if you do see him out and about it's usually with his family. I understand how some people get caught up in celebrity worship, but Mr. Damon is not your average vapid celebrity, by any means.

[Rhonda Harvey]

01:22 AM on 08/04/2011

I agree that perhaps in ANY workforce, ten percent of the people there are "bad" at what they do. Still, they get promoted under the Peter Principle and life goes on. Why do people OBSESS about teachers when teachers are grossly underpaid and under appreciated? I welcome ANYONE to come into my classroom and do what I do as WELL as I do it for the money I am paid. By the way, before you volunteer, you should know that I teach ninth grade English (a variety of genres) and twelfth grade British Literature, as well as Advanced Placement Literature and Composition AND advise the yearbook for about 50K/year. I have a Master's degree and am entering my 20th year of teaching. Who's next??

[Rosie Green]

08:55 AM on 08/04/2011

I agree...Teachers are underpaid.