After working for 20 years in the field of nuclear medicine, Sharon Burns decided to take some time off so she could volunteer in school alongside her son, who had some learning issues. Little did she know that the experience would lead to her encore career.

In her son’s first-grade classroom at Armstrong Elementary School in Fairfax, Va., she saw the difference a good teacher could make in a child’s life. She followed a teacher’s recommendation and became a substitute teacher for a year. “The next year,” she explains, “I was a full-time aide for the sixth grade, and then I was hooked.”

Up until then, her career had revolved around cardiac imaging and bone scans, first in a small cardiac clinic, then as the supervisor of a nuclear medicine department. The transition to teaching wasn’t easy, but she persisted when she hit roadblocks.

Although she had a college degree, she needed to take 36 credits (three semesters) of general education courses, some of which, she felt, “did not contribute to assisting me to be a better teacher.” With the support of her family, she met the requirements and now, at age 53, teaches first grade herself at Armstrong Elementary.

Yet how many people are unable to take the time and withstand the loss of income necessary to transition to the teaching profession in the second half of life? Barriers facing would-be encore teachers were the topic of a lively discussion at a recent national meeting of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) in Washington, D.C.

State teaching and licensing requirements were noted as one of the biggest hurdles. There is evidence that many adults would like to become teachers, but they don’t know how to do it and they don’t know where to find help.

Among the promising solutions mentioned were a program at the University of North Carolina called Pathway to Teaching that helps professional older adults become teachers and an initiative in Ontario, Canada, that gives new teachers the power to decide how much mentoring they need.

In the meantime, determined individuals like Sharon Burns are creating their own encore careers in teaching. Her advice to others contemplating a similar move: “Find out what you love and go for it.”