Actor Matt Damon Rallies With Teachers in Washington

Matt Damon rallied with teachers in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, in an effort to stop standardized testing in schools across the country.

Damon joined thousands of others for the "Save Our Schools" march, held on the Ellipse, steps away from the White House.

In his moving speech, the 40-year-old actor talked about his mother, who is a former public school teacher, and his "brush" with standardized testing.

"I remember because my mom went to the principal's office and said, 'My kid ain't taking that. It's stupid, it won't tell you anything and it'll just make him nervous.' That was in the '70s when you could talk like that," Damon told the crowd.

During the march, teachers were seen carrying signs that read "Children are more important than test scores" and "I am not the problem," CNN reports.

Sporting a shaved head, Damon also explained that he had flown in from Vancouver just to join the march.

"I landed in New York a few hours ago and caught a flight down here because I needed to tell you all in person that I think you're awesome," he said.

Damon is working up north with Jodie Foster on a sci-fi film titled "Elysium."

Other speakers at Sunday's rally included author Jonathan Kozol, Damon's mother Nancy Carlson Paige and former Assistant Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch.

"We need to stop high-stakes testing and we need more funding for early childhood education," Ravitch told The Huffington Post.

Standardized testing in U.S. public schools has been in place since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed in 1965. The Act was rebranded in 2001, when the Bush Administration passed the No Child Left Behind Act.

"I don't know where I would be today if my teachers' job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test. If their very survival as teachers was based on whether I actually fell in love with the process of learning but rather if I could fill in the right bubble on a test . . . I honestly don't know where I'd be today if that was the type of education I had. I sure as hell wouldn't be here. I do know that," said Damon.

Damon's full speech can be read on the Washington Post.