[Feature] Crypto Education: Should It Be Added to the School Curriculum?

We study all sorts of subjects in school, mandatory or optional, from English to Mathematics, Art, Science, History, and so on. Each subject is then broken down further when we start to specialise in it like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. for Science; painting, drawing, digital art, etc. for arts, and more. So why not educate people about the world of cryptocurrency? This does not only apply to children in early education but to teenagers and adults in tertiary education as well.

Some are adamant that crypto is the future of the economy and is a cutting-edge technology that will revolutionise businesses; others feel that since it is virtual money and not tangible, it will vanish from the face of the Earth one day. Whatever your stance, it is undeniable that blockchain technology and crypto have slowly but gradually integrated into our lives and the adoption of this new technology is still advancing.

Education imparts knowledge to people which helps them understand better in order to make informed decisions about this type of digital currency. In addition, teaching people about the benefits and potential implications will help them increase their financial literacy and be more cautious of scams. As such, it is beneficial for schools to include crypto education in their syllabus.

Based on an analysis by crypto site Bankless Times, 64% of U.S. parents with school-age children desire to see crypto established as a subject in schools. Also, 40% of parents want to see classes with some sort of blockchain technology education while 35% of parents would like the school syllabus to include teaching about the metaverse and other virtual worlds.

Source: Bankless Times

Jonathan Merry, CEO of Bankless Times, expressed his views on the findings, “It is encouraging to see that parents are starting to realise the importance of crypto education. With the increasingly popularity of cryptocurrencies, it is important for people to understand how they work. And what better place to learn about this new technology than in school?”

Many institutions have already integrated some sort of crypto courses in their curriculum and one of the latest to jump on the bandwagon, is the “Bitcoin Protocol” course by Mays Business School at Texas A&M. Associate Professor Korok Ray announced on his Twitter on 13 January that he will be teaching the first ever Bitcoin class to students in the College of Engineering and Mays Business School.

According to crypto researcher Josh Cowell, a lack of high-quality crypto education is preventing adoption to be taken to the next level, and that if done correctly, can improve one’s financial literacy. Boston University Law School’s adjunct Professor Thomas Hook recently told Cointelegraph that they are now offering a “Crypto Regulation” course to students, “It’s meant to expose future lawyers on the potential issues they may see and the myriad of approaches and regulations that exists as it pertains to crypto [and] the different [issues] that crypto companies may face across the globe.”

Other major universities are also offering crypto courses ─ Harvard University has added blockchain education to its curriculum and has a blockchain student community with 200+ members which holds “Crypto 101” discussion on a weekly basis in order to support students to build and scale their crypto projects; U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler is teaching a blockchain course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also has a Bitcoin (BTC) club named the MIT Bitcoin Club; National University of Singapore (NUS) offers a blockchain curriculum that spread across several fields and tiers from beginners to CEOs and mid-level managers; and more.

In a nutshell, ensuring that crypto education is an integral part of the school curriculum will be crucial in shaping the present for the future we live in.