The year is 2021 and the United States is in the midst of cryptocurrency mania. Ads promoting the Bitcoin cryptocurrency featuring celebrities such as Megan the Stallion and Tom Brady are attracting a lot of attention from young fans.
Some announcements describe cryptocurrencies as an exciting new form of currency. While the ads were right about the hype, they were wrong about the new cryptocurrency. Even when the commercial was released, Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized cryptocurrency, was more than ten years old. Now, in 2024, 15 years will have passed since the launch of Bitcoin.
Although 15 years is historically a very short time, it literally represents the age of adolescence.
Yanelli Espinal, host of the Financially Inclined podcast on Marketplace, talked to teens about cryptocurrency and said they had a lot of questions. He spoke with Marketplace's Lily Jamali about how teachers are trying to figure out how to interact with students interested in cryptocurrency.
Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Yanelli Espinal: Teachers come forward and say we need cryptocurrency resources, our students want to know more and have a lot of questions. For the first time in the state of Georgia, there are actually some educational standards that must align with teacher training and which include historical examples of cryptocurrency purchasing and speculative investing. Now that teachers know they need to explain how it works to students, they first look for resources to help them understand it.
Laila Jamali: You listen to the teacher's opinion, but you also talk to the students. I just finished a national tour where I spoke to 37 high school kids from across the country. Have you heard any questions from students about cryptocurrency?
Espinal: I get a lot of questions from students about cryptocurrencies and investing in general. I think one of the most important things students want to know is: where can I invest my money to develop it? They realize that inflation is high, they see the news and social media headlines, and they see celebrities complaining about inflation on social media. I think they are very wise.
Jamali: And you just told them it's not cryptocurrency? Not the right place to grow your cryptocurrency?
Espinal: I think there are two things we should avoid. The first is that we should avoid proselytizing specific financial topics or strategies. But the opposite must also be avoided, that is, trying to discourage students from any financial behavior or activity. So I think our job as teachers is to educate them, empower them, inform them, and then pass it on to them. Now that you've learned what we've covered in this course, what do you think? Now that you've studied, researched and analyzed it, what do you think? Do you think it's a safe investment for you? Or a good place to keep your and your family's money?
Jamali: Over the last couple of years, people have lost a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies, and we know that there is some predatory behavior that targets people from marginalized backgrounds for such investments.
Aspinall: Exactly. I think this is the problem. What we currently know about cryptocurrency is what we hear from online media rather than educational sources. It is very difficult to find a person who does not invest in cryptocurrency or who is strongly neutral and neutral towards the concept of cryptocurrency. As one teacher said: "I have no idea what the game is, I just want you to understand what it is and how it works so you can decide if you are ready to invest in cryptocurrency or if it is better for you. Stay away" ." You don't need to get involved because you don't need to invest in cryptocurrency, but what you need to do is make an informed decision about your money. Therefore, you need to understand cryptocurrency, how it works and why it was created. Why some people they support it and why some people oppose it and your position.
Jamali: Do you think younger generations, like high school students, have a different view of cryptocurrency than those who are older and have invested their entire lives in the traditional American financial system?
Aspinall: Oh, yes. 100% I met students who told me they already had cryptocurrency and had deposited $50 or $100. I met one student who said he paid almost $1,000. The problem is they see a lot of celebrities talking about it and they see the hype around it. The hype machine creates FOMO. The fear of missing out has a strong psychological impact and they want to be part of it, especially when they see people they admire.
Jamali: But this worries me. There is a lot of hype and questions about whether celebrities like Larry David or Tom Brady are sending messages about cryptocurrency. These guys are those guys and they get rewarded for it.
Aspinall: Right. Therefore, it is important for us to encourage students to analyze what is happening and what the sources of information are. “I saw Megan the Stallion teaching me about Bitcoin in a cash app ad,” they said. So I said, well, let's stop and take a step back, what should we do? This is an ad for Cash App. We should try to teach them to think this way. Because I have to say that the generation of students I worked with in high school are part of a generation that doesn't see the lack of privacy online and the constant focus on advertising and marketing tactics. used against us. Online they don't consider it an invasion of privacy. They don't see it as manipulative or negative. They see it as normal. Because from the moment they remember the first time they used an iPad or the first time they played on their mother's cell phone, that has always been the common Internet that they have experienced and known. So, as adults, it's up to us to tell them, "You've been manipulated by what you see online, and instead of admitting it's hype, you're taking it as truth." We need to teach them to recognize and decipher information that is clearly promoted over information from a real, unbiased source.
Jamali: It seems like financial literacy is taught here, as well as media literacy. What is your experience teaching teachers about cryptocurrency and giving them the tools to teach it?
Espinal: It's really funny because I teach a nine-hour teaching certification course and the tenth hour is a test that teachers have to pass to prove that they have truly mastered the subject. The first session of the course is simply about the history of money. The teachers were so shocked: “Don't we talk about Bitcoin and Blockchain?” They said. I don't think, no, no, no, before we get into this, we should all agree on a common definition of meaning. Because most people think that money means dollars, coins or credit cards. Instead of thinking about the concept of money, which is actually accepted as a form of payment for goods or services, or as repayment of debts or payment of taxes, they think about the type of payment they incur.
Once we start talking about these topics, we will look at them from a historical perspective and I will share with them Aristotle's Six Principles of Finance. What you use as money should be rare. It should be sustainable, known and shared. It should be portable and valuable. So when the teachers started to know about it, they said, what are you waiting for? In 350 BC Aristotle was talking about what makes things money? So when we start to think about money through this historical lens, we can understand why cryptocurrencies can be criticized for not being a good form of money or why they can be seen as a potentially good alternative to traditional forms of money. Since we look at it through the lens of Aristotle's principles on money,
Jamali: I can say; I never learned this in school and I'm so happy that education can now reach the community. At the time, 25 states now required students to take a personal finance course before graduating high school. Is cryptocurrency part of the curriculum?
Espinal: It varies a lot from state to state because each state's laws don't say exactly what you have to teach. Most states will choose to develop their own educational standards for financial literacy, and then teachers will need to adapt their lessons and goals to those standards. I think it's still in the exploration stage. We introduce students to the concepts that interest them. It's interesting when you have a class about money and then students come to class thinking we're going to talk about what they think money is, for example, they think cryptocurrency is money, and then you don't talk about it. in the classroom. class, then they will think that your education is irrelevant. They say, “You're not going to tell us about cryptocurrency, how about money in this lesson?” Therefore, I think it is very important for teachers to observe what is happening in the education they teach their students so that students can see how this relates to their real life.