Steven Johnson, Ed.M.'96, is walking to his own beat.

Steven Johnson, Ed.M.'96, has lived his personal and professional life by one code: respect. As a beat cop in Boston for 26 years, Johnson tirelessly fought to protect his community from violence, drug abuse, and the hopelessness felt by its youth. Early in his career as a police officer, he learned that one crucial way to resurrect a broken neighborhood was to go into it as a police officer and not only demand respect of the community, but offer his respect right back.

After a few years on the force, Johnson decided to take on another integral role in his community and began teaching a film course at a high school in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. While teaching, he says he was able to build a rapport with kids that he couldn't attain as a police officer.

"They didn't trust the police," he explains, noting that some had experienced poverty and violence. "They were afraid and distrustful of them."

As a teacher, however, his students saw him as a person who cared about their education and potential instead of as "some intimidating enforcer." At the encouragement of colleagues, Johnson applied to the Ed School to pursue a master's degree in teaching. Once accepted, he took a year off from the police force and worked to create a program to train police officers how to teach non-law enforcement-related classes in high schools. He purposely focused on a curriculum distant from law enforcement so that the kids could see officers as educators and mentors in addition to protectors.

While at the Ed School, Johnson taught history at a high school and focused his program on underprivileged, inner-city schools that were dominated by impoverished minority students. After graduating, Johnson returned to the police force and introduced his project to several local high schools through afterschool programs. Taught exclusively by police officers, the lessons ranged from subjects like history to programs in self-esteem building and problem-solving.

Now retired from the force, Johnson's spirit for teaching has not waned, and he regularly tutors neighborhood children in his Roxbury community on the intricacies of chess. "The philosophy [of chess] is that when you play, nobody loses," he says. "You just learn from the mistake you made and to [try] not to repeat it."

He says the great result of learning chess is individual confidence and self-respect; the game holds no merit to a competitor's size or status -- all the potential to succeed relies on one's own determination. This lesson -- that possibility exists beyond circumstance -- is one Johnson hopes will be passed on through each of the kids he has taught over the decades.