Tre Johnson, former Redskins lineman, teaches Landon freshmen
It’s not only Mondays that the boys in Mr. Johnson’s ninth-grade Modern World History class want to talk football. Life in the NFL’s trenches is a topic of endless curiosity.
Could Mr. Johnson have blocked Ray Lewis, they love to ask.
What about Hannibal, who taught the ancient Romans the meaning of fear?
Genghis Khan?
“One time I asked if he could take on the whole Trojan army!” 15-year-old Michael Soraci says.
The answer is always the same.
“There’s nobody on the planet I couldn’t block!” Mr. Johnson brays. “All-pro or not, I’m gonna put him on his pockets!”
But five minutes of football chatter is all Tre Johnson indulges before getting down to business. The lesson on a recent school morning: an introduction to Islam and the Crusades.
Johnson sports a far less menacing look — khakis, shirt, tie and sweater — than he brandished as a Washington Redskins guard from 1994 to 2000 and again in 2002, reaching the Pro Bowl in 1999.
Back when his first step was more explosive, roughly 13 years and 60 pounds ago, his job was protecting quarterback Brad Johnson and blasting running lanes for Stephen Davis. Today, at 41, it’s expanding the minds of 14- and 15-year-old freshmen at Landon School, prodding their thinking on matters of world history and cultural diversity in classrooms he strives to make intellectually challenging and emotionally safe.
“Since Day One, Mr. Johnson has been encouraging us to express our opinion,” says Josh Hunter, 15, a student in two of his classes. “I feel I can say what I think, and I really love that about him. I don’t feel judged. There’s a certain trust in his classes that makes you want to speak. Some teachers don’t rub off on you the same way.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/tre-johnson-former-redskin-lineman-teaches-landon-freshmen/2012/11/20/0cd2a2ea-328c-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_story.html
