Don't judge a school by its name.

"I teach at a Catholic school in town."

- "Oh. That's nice."

They politely smile, and that is usually where the conversation stops. 

"I teach at the inner-city school down the street."

- "Wow. Tell me more about that. You are brave! That is such a ministry."

They lean in intently, and inquire further. 

We have a tendency to judge a school by it's name.

 If it has the word "Saint" in front of it, or the word "Christian" behind it, the halls are full of compliant kids whose parents have never denied them anything because they've never had to. They are rich kids whose biggest problem is choosing whether they want to wear Nike or Under Armor socks tomorrow. And the people who teach them kick their feet up and earn an easy paycheck. 

On the other hand, If a school is named by its location in town, we imagine the halls look more like a poorly censored MTV show with students grinding through life. The folks who teach them burn the midnight oil lesson planning, grading and worrying themselves sick about their students. 

I believe that those two schools and their occupants are much more alike than we could ever know. 

There are students suffering from the same things at both schools.

- Going unnoticed by adults/teachers who are supposed to care for them

- Resorting to self-infliction to feel

- Struggling to find who they want to be

- Experimenting with drugs, sex and alcohol

- Believing they are incapable of high achievement 

- Wishing to break the system their family is in

- Comparing themselves to other students

- Settling for the same life their parents have

They are the same struggles; they just manifest in different ways. 

I think the teachers experience the same things at both schools, too.

- Striving, and often failing, to connect with broken students

- Feeling like school is all-consuming

- Fearing even more bad news about that one student

- Struggling through relationships co-workers and administration

- Staying at school way too long to make sure everything is ready/perfect

- Resenting teachers who clock in and out at 7:30 and 4:00

The struggles are the same, they simply manifest in different ways. 

I think it is time that we believe this unchangeable fact: students are facing student struggles, and teachers are facing teacher struggles, regardless of the name of their school.

Being a student at one place is just as hard as it is at the other. 

And teaching at each place is truly a ministry, it just manifests itself in different ways. 

* I've wrestled recently with the importance of my job and the impact of it. I find myself comparing my work to work that my friends are doing in different school districts. I wrote this to myself to remind myself that my ministry is important, too. I also think this can apply to many different realms outside of education: ministry, service professions, etc. The struggles are found on each side of the fence. And, people on each side of the fence are doing great things to serve those hurting.