Why You Should Treat Your Students Like Your Bank Account
Have you checked your bank account or balanced your checkbook today?
If you’re like me, you probably check it daily. I always need to ensure I have enough money to cover all my bills and expenses. I check that my account is never in the negative so I always have enough funds to cover my withdrawals. In order to do this, I make sure I deposit more than I withdraw.
Just as we constantly check our bank accounts, we need to check our students’ accounts often. Their lives resemble bank accounts: we should make deposits in their lives before we ever attempt to make a withdrawal.
They need security, and when a deficit threatens that security, they panic.
As a teacher, I had to learn to communicate unconditional love to all students. They need love even when they make mistakes, fail to complete their work, or make us angry.
I learned over the years that I needed to make twice as many deposits as withdrawals. Scolding students for not doing their homework or for disrupting class would only have done more damage if I hadn’t made deposits in their lives. By making deposits, I could draw from my surplus in their accounts when it came time to discipline them.
We hope parents and family members partner with us to make deposits and keep our students’ accounts in the black. However, so many students come to us with their accounts depleted. They don’t get consistent deposits of affirmation, love, and care at home, so they come to school seeking to refill their accounts.
As teachers, we should learn to recognize the signs of overdrawn accounts in our students: depression, resistance to small things, acts of revenge against others, and bad behavior to get attention. Students will act out to try to fill their accounts back up.
For one whole day, I encourage you to ask yourself, “Am I making more deposits or withdrawals?” Just as with our bank accounts, we know that withdrawals are easier than deposits. It’s easy to spend money only to quickly find ourselves in the negative. Don’t let that happen to your students.
If we overdraw our accounts, we must pay a fine. If we overdraw from a student’s emotional account, we may find there is a bigger price to pay. Find ways to make deposits daily so when you do make withdrawals, students are not left empty.
Over time, I realized deposits are not the same for each child. Students’ accounts fill up in different ways. You must listen and understand what is important to each of them. Some students will need you to go to their basketball game, give a compliment on their work, or make a positive phone call, while others may only need a hug or a high five. Every student is different and you will have to figure out how to make meaningful deposits in each of their lives.
It’s also important that students make deposits into each other’s accounts. I urge you to observe your classroom and acknowledge when students uplift and encourage each other. How often do you encourage students to lift each other up? Do you make time in your classroom for positive affirmations?
If you need help creating this classroom culture, I recommend you read the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? This book will encourage positive behavior and acts of kindness to help students make deposits in each other’s accounts. The book refers to account deposits as “bucket filling” and account withdrawals as “bucket dipping” to help students understand the impact of their words and actions on others’ lives. There is also a Bucket Fillers website with free resources and activities that teachers can use to practice “bucket filling” with students.
Remember that with children, seemingly little things are actually big things. Don’t take a high five, a smile, a piece of candy, or five minutes of extra recess time for granted. They are all small acts of kindness that will make big deposits over time in our children’s lives.
