Matt Damon Can't Fix Our Sucky Schools

Matt Damon thinks teachers should have tenure.  The same website (boingboing) that portrayed his statement as heroic, had another article on how public schools in Missouri were banning books (Slaugherhouse-Five).  On the same page, posted on the same day!

Just give them more effin money!
(Edited by Double Birds)

Boingboing has a whole list of school shenanigans, that make our education system look like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone.

We all want to fix education.  But money is not the only problem.



The root of the problem is politics.  If a politician thinks he can score re-election points by busing inner-city kids to the suburbs, and rural kids to the cities, he'll do it.  If he thinks he can score points by banning Kurt Vonnegut, or expunging Mark Twain, or dumbing down F. Scott Fitzgerald, he'll do it.

Why is a politician getting involved in the first place?  Why is it his business how my kid is raised?  Isn't that something parents can work out with teachers?

Teachers I know most often gripe that they have no control over their own curriculum.  When teaching is your life, and you have no control over what you teach, you have no control over your life.  If you became a teacher because you dreamed of making a difference, how demotivating is it to be told you can't?  Is there any amount of money that will make you happy at your job?  If we pay our teachers a million bucks an hour, but do not give them control over their own curriculum, will it make any difference in how our children turn out?

(Edited by Double Birds)

We need to take the politics out of schools.  That's the problem.  Public education becomes as confused as marriage when it becomes a political issue.  Government should only get involved once someone gets injured.  Until someone calls the police, government has no place in our schools (or our beds).

Parents and teachers need the freedom to reform our schools.  If they have to run every reform and idea through a bureaucracy, no amount of money in the world will fix our education system.

I'd trust a teacher with my child over a politician.  Every time.

Further Reading:

1. An article just as biased as the boingboing article, but from my side of the spectrum.


2. My plan to pay our teachers more:  If teachers can figure out a way to cut back on our military-industrial complex, I think they should get a cut of that sweet government cash.