Matt Damon and his mom who introduced him, Nancy Carlsson Page. The full transcript is here.
Excerpt:
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 “overpaid;” 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. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.
Matt Damon’s dunder-headed speech. http://bit.ly/oRq8EP
I posted a comment at the site to which Mr. Mitchell’s link leads. Suffice it to say that I couldn’t disagree more with what he writes there or his characterization of Matt Damon’s speech.
Baker Mitchell is a mouthpiece for the Charter School lobby and like any troll should be ignored. When was the last time an “entrepreneur” had the best interests of the public at heart? This is from his own website:
“Baker is an electrical engineer, former university assistant professor, and entrepreneur. He has a number of peer-reviewed scientific publications and chapters in engineering texts and is the holder of two US patents.
Coming out of retirement, he founded two rural K-8 public charter schools in North Carolina that have a combined enrollment of over 1,400 students and are operated by his educational management organization The Roger Bacon Academy.”
He’s probably against public health benefits and welfare as well. Go away Mr Baker, America doesn’t need more opportunists like you.
[...] For more context from the day, here’s Matt Damon’s headlining speech: [...]
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One of the problems is the removal of the educational decision making processes into the hands of accountants and managers with no training. How can a decision maker prioritize sensibly when they have no concept of the consequences? They want a tidy graph with easily defined factors.. a standardized test gives them that. It delivers the outcome they require, it just it is irrelevant to the childrens’ learning!.
Human beings have never been easily quantified. If we do our job well many issues and problems faced by our community members do not eventuate.
For example….I am an early childhood educator and I invest a great deal of time in early intervention supporting families to strengthen their children’s learning foundations. If it works there is nothing to see! How can we prove it was effective? There is no longer a problem!
A local politician described it to me as a cliff without a fence, people will fall down. If you send ambulances people vote for you. if you build a fence no one falls down so no one cares it is there. Where are the votes in the current decisions?
[...] Feed Matt Damon’s speech at the SOS march that made teachers cry « Parents Across America [...]