Real Talk
When we became teachers, we knew full well that the pay would be low when we chose our education major. Still, we spent years in college and hours in professional development. After all, we have a heart for children and want to make the world a better place. Yet despite our high level of education, many parents and administrators still view us as nothing more than glorified babysitters who must be micromanaged constantly.
Here are some obvious reasons why comparing teachers to babysitters is both rude and ridiculous.
Let’s do a salary comparison.
The average pay for babysitters is $21.12 per hour, which is more than minimum wage in many places around the country. Since parents leave their child’s safety in the hands of a babysitter, this is money well spent.
Shockingly, however, the average hourly pay for teachers is just $18.34 per hour. What?! Like babysitters, teachers are also in charge of student safety. However, we must also educate them while teaching them social-emotional skills, organizational skills, and time management.
Yet somehow teachers aren’t even paid as much as a babysitter, who only has one or two kids to manage at a time? If you’re going to call us babysitters, show us the money!
How about an education comparison?
Babysitters need absolutely zero training to be placed in charge of children. Teenagers are left in charge of kids all the time without even a minimum of basic first aid and CPR. Many of these babysitters are responsible enough to do the job, but they are not required to be very knowledgeable.
In fact, babysitters don’t need a license or to continue taking more and more classes to keep their jobs. Yet the bare minimum requirement to become a teacher is a bachelor’s degree. On top of that, many teachers shell out big bucks to receive a master’s degree, either because our state requires it or because we seek to constantly improve ourselves. We are also yearly trained in first aid, CPR, and medication delegation. Oh, and don’t forget that we must legally maintain a certain number of hours of professional development to renew our teaching licenses.
If teachers are babysitters, we are the most educated and least trusted babysitters out there.
What about a labor comparison?
Babysitting is undeniably an important job. However, babysitting happens on an infrequent basis and usually only takes a few hours at a time. These hours are spent playing with two or three kids, maybe making them a meal, giving them a bath, or putting them to bed. These are minor tasks compared to the demands of teaching. In contrast, teachers see the same kids day after day for 10 months, investing deeply in every child.
Compare one evening of babysitting to literally any single day as a teacher. In addition to our 8-hour workday, teachers also grade papers, make lesson plans, prepare crafts and hands-on learning activities, hang up bulletin boards, attend endless meetings, and spend time thinking and worrying about our students as we take showers or fall asleep at night. There aren’t many careers out there that are as hard or emotional as ours.
…Not to mention the trust issue.
Parents trust babysitters with the health and safety of a couple of kids at a time. They don’t always offer the same trust to teachers. Teachers must constantly prove we are capable (beyond capable) of keeping a classroom full of kids safe for the entire school day. And that’s on top of implementing numerous lessons that are also mandated and micromanaged by the powers that be. Parents trust babysitters, some of whom can’t even drive yet, with their children, yet teachers are constantly micromanaged as if we have no idea what we’re doing.
It’s insulting.
Teachers continue getting up day after day, heading to our classrooms with the knowledge of our heavy workloads and minimal paychecks. We do not deserve to be called babysitters, especially when babysitting is objectively easier, less exhausting, and more highly paid.
It’s time to recognize just how professional, intelligent, capable, loving, and amazing teachers really are. A higher paycheck would be a bonus, but many teachers would give up a pay raise in a second in exchange for our admin’s trust that we can do our jobs without being criticized and micromanaged.
