“So, what’s the market rate for an unaccountable degree-holding babysitter?”

The above is a quote from a man named Tim Peck, a self-described “Unaffiliated Objectivist” and writer of the blog Et in Arcadia ego.

He also is a prolific Twitter tweeter, who according to Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch is “one of the most prolific conservative voices on Twitter when it comes to North Carolina policy and politics (he’s authored more than 33,000 “tweets” in recent years that often echo and promote takes of various Art Pope Empire employees)” (http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2016/09/13/an-election-year-switcheroo-on-public-education/).

In that same article, Schofield outlines the electioneering, pro-teacher stance that the GOP powers in NC have adopted this year in order to portray themselves as the friends of public education. And that’s when I came across Tim Peck’s Twitter tweet (I still like the alliterative sound there – almost tongue-twisting).

Here it is again.

“So, what’s the market rate for an unaccountable degree-holding babysitter?”

Put aside that Mr. Peck’s unaffiliated objectivism seems to hearken to Ayn Rand’s philosophical system. I am not really interested in debating the merits of ideas expounded upon in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead.

Put aside that Mr. Peck’s blog (Et in Arcadia ego ) is named after a phrase that praises the idyllic pastoral life of ancient Arcadia where inhabitants lived simply away from corrupted city life. There are not many people who can actually claim to be securely sequestered by the issues that affect North Carolinians.

Put aside that the phrase “et in Arcadia ego” is also used by Virgil in the “Eclogues”. This posting is not questioning the use of a phrase by a poet who wrote Rome’s greatest epic poem that asserted the almost “divine” nature of Augustus Caesar and spotlighted Rome as the beacon of civilization when it was anything but pastoral in nature.

Put aside that the featured image of Mr. Peck’s blog, “Wanderer Above the Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich, is often associated with Lord (George Gordon) Byron, the famous British Romantic poet and writer of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, whose personal life philosophy seems to run totally counter to the views of Ayn Rand.

What I am fixated on is the tweet,

“So, what’s the market rate for an unaccountable degree-holding babysitter?”

And I have to admit that it is a good question offered by Mr. Twitter Tweet Tim Peck. Good question.

I assume he is referring to teachers. But I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt here. I will say that we really need to find the market rate of the degree-holding babysitter and flush this argument out.

I’m a public school teacher; therefore, by Mr. Peck’s Twitter tweet, I am also an unaccountable degree-holding babysitter. And I will save the accountability portion of his tweet for a later date. As far as baby-sitting goes, I just need to keep the kids occupied, fed, clothed, and let them play without destroying personal property.

So, welcome to http://www.care.com/babysitting-rates. It was the first babysitter calculator website that came in a simple Google search. It seems to be a reliable source.

Now, let’s enter in some numbers.

• For zip code, I used an Asheville code. That’s where Mr. Peck resides.
• For number of children, I put in 4+.
• For experience, I entered 10+ because I have around 18 years of teaching experience.
• And hours? I put in 60 a week. Why? That’s how much time I usually put into all the facets of my job.

The result is $18.00 dollars an hour.

But there is more math involved!

At $18.00 an hour for four kids, it would need to be higher because I usually deal with 22-30 kids at a time. Actually, in the past few years my class sizes have averaged over 28 students per class. That’s seven times the amount of kids I have would receive $18.00 an hour for babysitting. Maybe if I just multiplied $18 by 7, then I get an adjusted per hour rate of $126.00 an hour.

You know, I will give a markdown. Call it the “unaccountability discount” as Mr. Peck seems to think teachers are unaccountable. Half off! That makes the hourly rate $63.00.

Now, I work on average about 10 hours a school day. Multiplying the new rate ($63.00) by 10 hours and I get a rate of $630 a day. Holy cow! Mr. Peck, I am starting to like your new implied idea of recompense for us babysitters.

My contract stipulates that I teach kids 180 days a year. So my new daily rate ($630) multiplied by the number of contracted days (and if I read your blog correctly, you like for public work to be contracted out), my “yearly” haul to babysit would be $113,400 for the school year.

Praise the Lord!

Now you may say, “Hey, you don’t spend all of your ten hours a day directly with students.” And that may be true, but with coaching, sponsoring, duties, and preparing to have things for your students to do while I babysit them, I can pretty much say that I am still actively engaging with the kids.

And this new rate that you seem to propose doesn’t even include weekends and other days that I spend at “daycare” to prepare to take care of kids.

So, let’s go back to the original question that you posed in your level-headed tweet.

“So, what’s the market rate for an unaccountable degree-holding babysitter?”

The answer is $113,400.

Well done, Tim Peck. Well done.

I’ll take it.