Editor's note: "The Faith in Our Lives" is a monthly series spotlighting Catholics in various walks of life, and how they connect faith with what they do.

"Did you ever shoot anybody?"

That's the first question students ask Jim Cordero, the junior high social studies teacher at Mary Star of the Sea School in San Pedro.

The 38-year-old former LAPD and Portland law enforcement officer has a ready return: "I'm glad that you take interest in others' careers, and in mine. But that is generally not a question you should ask either a policeman or someone in the military. That's a very private thing. So, in the future, ask away whatever else you want to know."

Career change
Like most life changes, the transition from cop to Catholic school teacher was painful.

It involved the breakup of Cordero's marriage, a return to college and his hometown, and an ongoing search for self. While earning a demanding double major at Loyola Marymount University (English and history), he started volunteering at Mary Star of the Sea School to get a "taste for teaching," working first as a classroom aide and later a substitute instructor. Four years ago, when the junior high social studies slot opened up, he jumped at it.

"I enjoyed police work and my partners," he explains. "For me, it was really the scheduling. I wanted a normal schedule, a normal family life. And being a young police officer, especially in L.A. in the '80s and early '90s, did not lend itself to that. Every time there was a hiccup in the city, you'd get held over four or five hours. Weekends and holidays, guess what? Obviously, the older officers with more seniority are going to get those off.

"And while we were going through the end of our marriage, I was struggling inside myself, trying to find out if I wanted to be the same person I was, or if I wanted to do something different and be somebody different --- an improved 'Jim,'" he adds with a half-smile. "Being in police work doesn't necessarily lend itself to being a great husband."

'Busy, busy, busy'
Now in his fourth year at Mary Star and remarried, Cordero has taught sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders religion and science besides world and American history. He has coached volleyball and basketball. He's currently the parochial school's athletic director, co-security director, junior high level leader as well as cheer squad coach. Summing it all up, he sighs and says, "I'm busy, busy, busy."

In this energetic elementary school environment, the San Pedro native has put to good use some of his old street-smart police skills. He points out that controlling 36 kids in a classroom --- as every veteran teacher well knows --- can be greatly enhanced by the existence of a no-nonsense "command presence."

The same theory of discipline applies to such mundane school tasks as marching students out of the building for a fire drill or recess. Other helpful carryover tips have been brevity in giving instructions and using a deep police voice to rise above classroom din.

But with a grin spreading across his face, Cordero admits that his cop-like "veneer of authority has been wiped away" at Mary Star. He believes his students are more likely to see him as a "person" today than an ex-policeman. And at least some, he feels, have even come to view him as a friend.

"You have to try to walk a fine line, and sometimes you step over this way or that way," he reports on the vocation of the modern day Catholic teacher. "You don't want school to be a prison. But you don't want to make it all laughs and giggles, and 'Let's just do nothing and enjoy ourselves.'"

Building a foundation
The joys of the job are "multifaceted." He says it's hard to get through a day on campus without laughing. And he still finds himself nudging coworkers to muse, "Hey, this is a job they pay us for?" Because even after four years, he can't quite believe that he gets compensated for talking all day about his first love --- history.

Another pleasure is directing "We the People" at Mary Star, a government-sponsored constitutional course that culminates in a mock congressional hearing. The rewards come in coaching, too, "when students all play fair and you can teach them a good lesson."

Trying to keep material fresh so it feels vibrant is one of his two big teaching challenges. The other is staying fresh himself, making sure the day-to-day problems of his other life don't enter the classroom. Personal problems can't play any part in either police work or teaching, he points out, because lives are being directly affected in both fields.

But the joys of teaching continue to outweigh the challenges for Jim Cordero.

"We're building a foundation," he says. "The kids' character and their education and their social skills will continue to build as they move on to high school and college or into a trade. But we are building the foundation --- a foundation for the rest of their lives. And that's really something."

Along with his own personal transformation.

"I think there was almost a feeling of searching for a little bit of redemption," the former cop confides. "Searching for a focus from a life that used to be kind of random and everywhere -- to find through being here my own focus on my own faith. And it's a constant working faith.

"Am I a hundred percent there?" he asks himself. "No. But I think sometimes I can find myself learning more than I think the children do."