Medical doctor teaching high school after retiring?

[Iapyx]

Has anyone ever heard of a doctor retiring and teaching anatomy/Biology/chemistry at a private high school. I intend to go into clinical medicine, however I am sad that I will not get to teach( I understand that I could teach at a med school etc, but I'm not interested in that)... Just curious if anyone knew of it happening.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I know a MD teaches anatomy and physiology at my university so why not high school. I personally believe that it shouldn't be a problem, however i've never seen this ( but I have seen a PhD teaching English in high school, so it's possible).

 

[UrsusHorribilis]

Has anyone ever heard of a doctor retiring and teaching anatomy/Biology/chemistry at a private high school. I intend to go into clinical medicine, however I am sad that I will not get to teach( I understand that I could teach at a med school etc, but I'm not interested in that)... Just curious if anyone knew of it happening.

Yes. In my high school we had a mid-career physician take two years off to join our faculty and teach bio. She's since returned to practice (as was her plan from the get go...we didn't scare her off haha). I'm sure many high schools would be happy to have a retired or inactive physician on their faculty. I think there might be licensing issues at public schools (not sure about this though...it probably varies by state, and I'm sure there are exceptions like teaching fellows/TFA etc.), but with an M.D. I'm sure you could get around these/get licensed easily enough, or elect to teach at a private or charter school. Depending on your field/career choices in medicine, and the local schools, you might even be able to participate in some kind of high school level pedagogic activities while practicing--consider organizing or participating in a summer shadowing/research program for high school kids, offering to teach a senior year elective that wouldn't require much of your time or could take place in the hospital etc. Lots of opportunities here--HS teaching is definitely not a field that will be hard to get into if you're interested...

 

[DirtyJustice]

In med school, my small group instructor is a retired internal medicine doc. I dont know about high school though. I'd assume most would want to stay in the graduate school level.

 

[Iapyx]

thanks for all the great answers

 

[McBatCommander]

This is the kind of thing I'd do once I got tired of the hectic lifestyle, and wanted to chill until I die.

 

[NickNaylor]

I fully intend to do this when I retire/if medicine sucks.

 

[Cleavername]

I fully intend to do this when I retire/if medicine sucks.

wouldn't teach med school pay more?

 

[McBatCommander]

wouldn't teach med school pay more?

Teaching med school, I'm sure is much more stressful then teaching high school. In med school, you have to worry about your status. Are you researching? Publishing? Things like that, that no one wants to do when they're old.

 

[wanderer]

Non elite private schools (such as religious schools) would likely be your best bet, since public schools often have licensing/union barriers.

 

[RedSHIFT]

i always wanted to coach high school football. so I def. plan on teaching High School AP Physics, AP Bio, or AP Chem when I retire.

teaching is so chill. if i didn't get into medical school i would of taught high school.

 

[Caristra]

I know some retired scientists who finished up research and teaching at Universities and taught high school or elementary kids for fun. There's nothing like performing wacky science experiments with a group of fifth grades to remind you of why you got into this in the first place.

 

[morning]

wouldn't teach med school pay more?

I think if you're concerned about money, you stay a doctor. Teaching the younger grades is just more fulfilling for some people. It's not all about the benjamins.

 

[sweetlife]

.

 

[chasincam]

^I agree. Teaching is awesome...after your first year. Actually the first year was pretty fun at times too. At least now a days, if you teach math or science, you'll have no problem getting a job, jsut about anywhere. Just be ready to have to deal with cranky faculty who either see you as a threat or think you patronize their job in some way. At least this is the sentiment I think prevails in public schools. Generally, the "bad" schools are filled with teachers who hate their jobs or are not good enough teachers to go to the suburbs, but there are sometimes really good and dedicated teachers who really care about children.)

 

[schrizto]

Teaching at a college or CC could work too. You could be non-tenured faculty, in which case you don't need to worry about researching/publishing. The kind of courses you could teach would be more varied, not just general anatomy or bio and you could design a seminar on a subject that you're interested in teaching. It's probably less involved than teaching high school though.

 

[echolalia16]

I think if you're concerned about money, you stay a doctor. Teaching the younger grades is just more fulfilling for some people. It's not all about the benjamins.

Unless of course all your students are named Benjamin.

I always liked the idea of being a high school teacher. This is something I think I would be interested in post-medicine, maybe as a "retirement" plan.

 

[NickNaylor]

wouldn't teach med school pay more?

Yeah, but I don't want to do research or play games/politics with people. While I'm sure that's present in high schools, it probably doesn't even compare to the level at med schools.

Also, if I'm retired I'm probably not too worried about making a ton of money.

 

[DrDrummer]

Yeah, but I don't want to do research or play games/politics with people. While I'm sure that's present in high schools, it probably doesn't even compare to the level at med schools.

Yeah, it's not even close. There's still politics, but that's generally left for people who are trying to climb the administrative ladder or who aren't smart enough to know how to avoid it. I've taught physics and chemistry for the last two years-- like a previous poster said, it's definitely taught me a lot about myself and been a challenge, but is a lot of fun too. You'd be surprised how often you can integrate Lil' Wayne quotes into a chemistry class. Retire and then come teach in the Houston public schools, they could use you.

 

[NickNaylor]

Yeah, it's not even close. There's still politics, but that's generally left for people who are trying to climb the administrative ladder or who aren't smart enough to know how to avoid it. I've taught physics and chemistry for the last two years-- like a previous poster said, it's definitely taught me a lot about myself and been a challenge, but is a lot of fun too. You'd be surprised how often you can integrate Lil' Wayne quotes into a chemistry class. Retire and then come teach in the Houston public schools, they could use you.

Can I play Lil' Wayne music in the classroom?

If so, count me in.

 

[Big Dog]

Our public HS (California unionized) science/AP Bio teacher is an MD (Yale MS, if I recall). Just plain quit the profession after a few years; too young for 'retirement'.

 

[unhappytnt]

So, can an MD simply teach in med school upon retirement? Or does he need to go through education and fulfill certain criteria?

 

[Evergrey]

I, too, am one of the people that thinks it would be awesome to teach at a non-med school level. College or HS would be amazing!

In response to SU1989, any MD who completes their residency is technically qualified enough to teach in med school. But whether or not he'll have the qualifications to hire is another thing entirely. I would think though that they could probably find you a spot no matter what, as long as you are fine with just being a lecturer rather than a professor.

 

[DirtyJustice]

Teaching med school, I'm sure is much more stressful then teaching high school. In med school, you have to worry about your status. Are you researching? Publishing? Things like that, that no one wants to do when they're old.

Most don't to research... many PhDs do research but a lot of the MDs are just here to be around medicine still. It is actually very low stress because we will spend a week learning something that takes you 2 minutes to do. Again this is just my school.

 

[sweetlife]

.

 

[McBatCommander]

In my high school we had this Chemistry teacher who use to be the director of a huge hospital in the area. He came down with some mean sickness that nearly killed him,and once we he recovered, he realized he'd love to chill. He wasn't an MD or anything, but he pretty much handled ALL the stressful things that an MD deals with (politics, finances, insurance, etc).

He was a great teacher though. Everyone loved him. He was one of my favorites.

 

[Isoprop]

As someone who has taught at both college and high school and tutored from grade school to college, I can tell you that I never, ever want to teach below the college level ever. I shudder at the thought of dealing with kids.

Can't wait for my peds rotation.

 

[echolalia16]

Teaching med school, I'm sure is much more stressful then teaching high school. In med school, you have to worry about your status. Are you researching? Publishing? Things like that, that no one wants to do when they're old.

I just noticed the Aquabats' theme. Love it!

 

[McBatCommander]

I just noticed the Aquabats' theme. Love it!

You are the first.

I love you.

 

[deleted74029]

My roommate is in Occupational Therapy school and his gross anatomy professor is a retired general surgeon. He TA'd the first year lab and said the guy barely remembered half of the stuff lol.

 

[chasincam]

Can I play Lil' Wayne music in the classroom?

If so, count me in.

Um, yeah!!! I did that this year while teaching my students unit prefixes. I started the class out rappin to "A milli" and the kids thought it was hilarious because I was so terrible at it, but it got their attention. I then gave them a mini lecture about how a "milli" would be a tenth of a cent and that if Lil' Wayne wanted to rap about millions he woula called it "A mega". (though some students say he wasn't rapping about dollars but albums. not sure which, but I don't really care either.) I then gave the students a group assignment of rewriting the lyrics using several of the prefixes from pico to peta. The winner that the class picked got extra credit. I named the assignment the "Prefix Remix". They loved it.

 

[JJMrK]

I'd imagine that in most states you would need to get a teaching credential to teach in a public school. Private schools may be different.

 

[familyaerospace]

Yes, some of my doctors in my public high school were MDs.

 

[NickNaylor]

Yes, some of my doctors in my public high school were MDs.

Jeez, you must have had a great school system. We had no MDs at my high school. No Ph.D.s either now that I think about it.

 

[schrizto]

Jeez, you must have had a great school system. We had no MDs at my high school. No Ph.D.s either now that I think about it.

Same. We had a med school dropout and a chiropractor among the science teachers at my high school but an MD was unheard of. It was a high school that focused on going into medicine so if anyone with an MD walked into the building (usually someone's parent, an alum, or a guest speaker) people would treat the visitor as if he or she had reached nirvana.

 

[familyaerospace]

Jeez, you must have had a great school system. We had no MDs at my high school. No Ph.D.s either now that I think about it.

My school system was pretty bad, but some high schools were magnet schools and the county would drop a few million dollars into a school to improve it. Mine was a science/pre-engineering/pre-medical magnet which was partially to address the fact we were such a low income area with a severe physician shortage. Nearly all our science teachers had at least a masters, a few had MDs or PhDs. Actually many of our other teachers had masters or were working on them. Of course that didn't make them good teachers but they knew the material. The school did send a lot of people to college, but almost none in the areas they were hoping for! We've produced more science teachers than anything so I guess that is something.

 

[indya]

.

 

[loveboatdoc]

I want NO/very-low stress, so I think I'll be a cafeteria lady when I grow up. They get off @ 1:20 pm, and get free breakfast and lunch, if you like beefaroni that is. I could just be a sub, and only go in on days when I feel like it. It would be fun being a physician in-cognito. I'd probably get chewed out for not washing a pan right, or microwaving 1,000 corn dogs wrong.

 

[chman]

It's not all about the benjamins.

How dare you:

JK, I have considered teaching as a second career as well.

 

[chman]

I want NO/very-low stress, so I think I'll be a cafeteria lady when I grow up. They get off @ 1:20 pm, and get free breakfast and lunch, if you like beefaroni that is. I could just be a sub, and only go in on days when I feel like it. It would be fun being a physician in-cognito. I'd probably get chewed out for not washing a pan right, or microwaving 1,000 corn dogs wrong.

Have you ever seen that show "undercover boss?" Similar to what you describe, all these bosses with credentials go undercover in positions low in the chain and get yelled at. It's pretty funny to see the reactions on the employees face when they find out they have been yelling at their employer.