The fundamentals of money – what it is, how it’s created, who controls it and how it gets distributed – are being explored in a new curriculum.
The French Ministry of National Education is creating Bitcoin explainer videos to introduce high school students to the concepts of cryptocurrency and formal study of the King Coin has now been officially added to the syllabus for Economics and Social Sciences.
Le Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale says it wants to help the youth of France explore the notion of decentralization in contrast to the centralized systems in today’s financial markets. According to the circular, entitled “What Is Currency and How Is It Created,” the French crypto curriculum will cover three core topics.
Learning objectives
- Understanding money’s functions and forms
- Understanding how bank lending contributes to money creation
- Understanding the role of the central bank in monetary policy, in particular by controlling the short-term interest rate, and understanding how these policies can impact prices and economic activity
The videos, including “Can Bitcoin replace the Euro?,” “Is Bitcoin the currency of the future?,” and “Do you have trust in your currency?” will contrast Bitcoin with fiat.
While the ministry is laying the groundwork for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency literacy throughout the country, France is not the first to introduce high school students to the emerging technology.
In Australia, an initiative called Code for Fun became the first coding school in Sydney to offer a blockchain and crypto course for high school students.
Last year, a former teacher in the Bronx arranged a two-day workshop for high school students who were interested in cryptocurrency. Carlos Acevedo invited representatives from leading blockchain companies such as the crypto exchange Gemini and data research firm Messari to teach students attend who attended a business incubator, reports CoinDesk.
Timothy Breza, a finance teacher at Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, first introduced Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to his high school students last year. Through an elective available to juniors and seniors, Breza incorporated blockchain, the history of cryptography and the adoption of cryptocurrencies into his course covering personal finance, investing and entrepreneurship.
