My Credentials and Background

I tutored during my undergraduate years and while in medical school, and taught workshop remedial classes in physics and math.  After graduating from medical school in 2007, I spent two years in a psychiatry externship at Pacific Hospital of Long Beach (since changed its name to College Medical Center Hospital),  an American Osteopathic Association- approved psychiatry residency Hospital.  Having an interest with troubled children, I started to tutor troubled youth.  After two years,  I became a professional full-time tutor, and, on the side, taught in the No Child Left Behind Program for six years.

People often ask why I never got a teaching credential.  The answer is simple.  I do not want a teaching credential. I have a doctorate degree and over 15 years of education after high school, which is beyond what a teaching credential might do for me. The word doctor is derived from the Latin word “docere” which means to teach.  The word doctor was historically applied to an especially learned person who is authorized and qualified to teach, which still holds true today. A teaching credential might lower my prestige. I do not need a teaching credential, the same way a professor does not need or want a teaching credential to teach.

Some parents want me to teach the common core, while others want me to stay away from it. The latter might be hard to do as so much of the teaching today is intertwined with common core.  It’s hard to differentiate between the two when trying to teach.  I explain in as many different ways as possible to give the student a deeper understanding of the material so they can excel to the fullest.