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Bless You, Matt Damon
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Thank you to a reader alerting me to this video. Matt Damon is at some event and gets a question about teachers and the incentive to work hard. (He also gets in a good shot to a smarty-pants cameraman.)
Do teachers in Seattle really work long hours for crappy pay?
Jack Whelan said…
Same motivational criteria ought to be applied to superintendents and other downtown staff. What about finding a dedicated educator whose first priority is to make SPS into a model urban school district, not to get a salary the north side of 250K.
Is it my imagine but is he getting hotter as he gets older?! Must be the shaved head. Or his anti-reform stance. : )
Anonymous said…
Ironic that MSNBC (Ed Schultz & Lawrence O'Donnell) is heralding Damon's comments as Right-Wing comeuppance, while meanwhile they have, to this point, been completely in bed and in the tank with the Ed Reformers, Waiting for Superman fans, Gates, Rhee, and the usual suspects. I guess 24 hour television makes for strange bedfellows too!
By the way, if anyone watched any of the videos from the Save Our Schools march, a couple of reporters mentioned this blog, although not by name, as they couldn't recall the "organized group" in Seattle.
OMG!! Lawrence O'Donnell just skewered Ed Reform, perhaps unintentionally, on The Last Word, tonight (8/2/11), while heralding Matt Damon and calling out the "blame the teacher" nonsense.
Unbelievable! Will he have a job tomorrow? Gates owns a healthy chunk of MSNBC, and OMG, O'Donnell has gone ROGUE! Watch for revisions and retractions in the coming days, as MSNBC tries to unwind this ball of string!
WSEADAWG
Anonymous said…
Wow, Wow and WOW AGAIN!
Teachers, you've got to give Lawrence O'Donnell a prize for what he just did for you all. He's doing it primarily to hit right wingers, but let's be honest: When it comes to ED REFORM, Gates/Walton/Broad, et al, are purely RIGHT WING in their tactics and beliefs.
A good day for teachers, when L O'D calls the attacks "maliscious." WSEADAWG
Anonymous said…
See Damon's piece and an MSNBC report about it here. WSEADAWG
WSEADAWG - I think they were referring to the Seattle Ed 2010 blog, the people who started it and who work with other activists, some of whom also are part of Parents Across America Seattle....
and the SOS March was a joint event, with people from Parents Across America involved in the planning, execution, speaking at the rally, marching etc...
The emphasis seems to have become that this was a teacher action.... it wasnt teachers only - a huge number of the people involved are parents/community members...
IF WE ARE TO TAKE PUBLIC EDUCATION BACK FROM THE ED DEFORMERS, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PRESENT A UNITED FRONT...
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
This may only be a partial list of reasons; please, add anything else in the comments. The deadline to file to run for the Board is May 19th. Entire Board Majority NOT vetting the Superintendent in any way, shape or form. Even the Seattle Times thought that was wrong. It was just absolute hubris and it was wrong. For the second time in just over a year , board members voted to negotiate a superintendent contract during a special meeting with no opportunity for public comment. This time, they showed an even deeper disregard for their responsibilities as public servants: Aborting a national search for a new superintendent and denying Interim Superintendent Brent Jones a chance to show students, parents and taxpayers that, indeed, he is the best person for the job. Government bodies can’t fast-forward through transparent processes just because they think they know the right answer. One other odd thing about the hiring of Brent Jones - most permanent SPS superintendent contracts ar
Comments
I got it by following a link from An Urban Teacher's Education Great blog with good coverage of the SOS March with lots of links.
By the way, if anyone watched any of the videos from the Save Our Schools march, a couple of reporters mentioned this blog, although not by name, as they couldn't recall the "organized group" in Seattle.
Check it out here.
WSEADAWG
Unbelievable! Will he have a job tomorrow? Gates owns a healthy chunk of MSNBC, and OMG, O'Donnell has gone ROGUE! Watch for revisions and retractions in the coming days, as MSNBC tries to unwind this ball of string!
WSEADAWG
Teachers, you've got to give Lawrence O'Donnell a prize for what he just did for you all. He's doing it primarily to hit right wingers, but let's be honest: When it comes to ED REFORM, Gates/Walton/Broad, et al, are purely RIGHT WING in their tactics and beliefs.
A good day for teachers, when L O'D calls the attacks "maliscious." WSEADAWG
Finally, somebody speaks out and calls bullshit on all the hate aimed at teachers. WSEADAWG
The emphasis seems to have become that this was a teacher action.... it wasnt teachers only - a huge number of the people involved are parents/community members...
IF WE ARE TO TAKE PUBLIC EDUCATION BACK FROM THE ED DEFORMERS, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PRESENT A UNITED FRONT...