Intermission: Matt Damon Gets Sassy at the Save Our Schools March

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFHJkvEwyhk&feature=player_embedded

I don't usually go for short, blond guys, but Matt Damon is really doing it for me today. This weekend he flew to D.C. and gave a rousing speech at the Save Our Schools march. But the truly passionate defense of teachers came when Damon, accompanied by his teacher mama, was asked to compare his own job security (or lack thereof) to that of teachers. In the above video, he replies that he's not acting because of job insecurity, he's acting because he wants to be an actor.

"A teacher wants to teach," he says. "Why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours?" When the guy behind the camera chimes in and says 10 percent of people in any job should think of doing something else, Damon shoots back, "Well maybe you're a shitty cameraman, I don't know!"

Granted, that last zinger is equal parts hostile and hilarious. But Damon exposes the hypocrisy of anti-tenure sentiment toward teachers in a matter of seconds, and illuminates an essential truism: Of course there are bad teachers, but most are out there because they love their jobs and want to do them well.