06 January 2008

Nannies with M.A.s--only in this area

I once joked to someone that I want to date someone who is math-literate enough to know that you can't double integrate e^(-x2). This used to be a sort of ongoing joke in undergrad.

It turns out that this isn't as unreasonable as I thought; nowadays in the over-achieving area that I live, they want nannies and babysitters who can speak French, with masters degrees, etc.

I mean, take this person who wants a tutor for their 10 and 11-year olds:
I am looking for a homework helper. The individual needs to have teaching experience preferably a masters in education. I have 3 children. The ages are 10, 10 and 11 years of ages.

The job would be afterschool which would include: picking the children up from school, taking them to their activities, bringing them home and helping them with their homework. Car will be provided.
Now will someone please tell me-- wth does someone need a masters for, simply to drive around 10 and 11- year olds and help them with their homework!?

Does this person really think that it takes a master's degree to do 5th grade level school work? Back in the 90s, they used to accept high school students as tutors for grade-school students. In fact, I held several such jobs during my middle school and high school years. Come to think of it, I was helping people with 5th grade level school work back in, um, 5th grade.

Why stop at a mere M.A.? If I ever have kids who need tutoring, I'm going to demand the ultra-nanny-- someone with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

1 comment:

Sofiya said...

As a former nanny-with-a-masters, I can tell you that the reason they ask this stuff is because they're too squeamish to say "We are big snobs and want a middle-class nanny", so they just demand middle-class attributes, such as advanced degrees. Luckily for them, there are usually enough desperate and unemployed graduate student types around to make this just about feasible.