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- Maybe* Acceptable Professional Targets if the TRS
discussion swings that way.
There are elements of what I'm thinking of under that - the whole "those who can't do teach," as well as the bit about high school art teachers being washed-up artists/performers rather than people drawn to the actual teaching profession.
I guess those sitcom examples are what made me start to think about this trope, but in reality it would probably fit well under Acceptable Professional Targets - perhaps if a section was added on college professors being professionals who hit a dead end in their career and are teaching as a last resort.
I was thinking there would be a trope for this, but I couldn't find it in HIMYM or Friends, which are the main examples I can think of. Basically the trope is when a character, typically an academic one, suffers career trouble (e.g. gets fired from a museum or an architecture firm) they are presented with an offer to teach at a university. Like I said this occurs in Friends with Ross and in HIMYM with Ted. It also occurs in the second-to-last season of Community with Jeff. It isn't always outright stated, but I feel at least implied that by accepting a teaching position they are accepting something beneath them just so that they can have a source of income until they can get back to a real job (i.e. implying that teaching is a sub-standard profession).