How can glue sticks teach children (and teachers) about Bitcoin?
As teachers know, there comes a point in the year where you are scrounging around for glue sticks, whiteboard pens, maybe even rubbers. Children seem to go through stationery like there's no tomorrow. Sometimes it's because they are constantly in use, maybe it's because they get passed around from child to child and no one takes responsibility for them, or maybe it's because they just don’t look after the item. Who knows? The end result is teachers having to put more orders in (if they’re lucky) or borrowing from other classrooms.
This post is going to be about how classroom stationery can teach a child the philosophy of bitcoin.
So, what is bitcoin?
The best place to go on this is to read a book (see below), but from a really basic level: bitcoin is a computer network that is operated by lots of people with powerful computers. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins produced, which means it has a finite supply — and to produce these bitcoins takes energy. Someone, somewhere, is paying the bill.
The way the network works is by everyone agreeing. If you try to cheat the system and you're found out, then you essentially waste the money you’re paying to run the computers and you're not rewarded with bitcoin.
It gets more complicated with blocks, what’s in the blocks, and the puzzle that the computers are trying to solve, but that’s too techy for this post.
In this post, we’ll discuss the incentives behind the computers, not the computers themselves.
Glue sticks and bitcoin
So how do you teach a child about the principles of economics with classroom stationery? By using different sets of rules.
Classroom economics
In my classroom, every student gets their own whiteboard pen/board with their name on it. They get a glue stick to share with a table of four, and pencils are kept in the middle of the table, it's a free-for-all.
We have three different systems working here:
Whiteboard pens: A child has ownership of this, it belongs to them. They are responsible for it. If they lose it, they don’t get another one from me. They have to find an old one, maybe in another class.
Glue sticks: Each glue stick has the table number on it. It belongs to the collective of the table, they are all responsible for it. If the glue lid goes missing, it will dry out.
Pencils: I have an abundance of them in the classroom cupboards. Children sharpen them until only a Borrower could use it. They know that if they lose one, they only need to ask me or take one from another table.
So where does economics fit into this?
Whiteboard pens are a personal responsibility and they are finite (until the next order comes in). The children take care of their pens, and the pens of other children in the class. They all follow this set of rules. This is the lesson of abundance vs finite.
When things are so easily given, they become inexpensive. Your mentality around the thing changes, as does your behaviour. Money has become this. The idea of getting a new car because now I have access to finance reduces the value of money (not the car). The car becomes more accessible because we now have easier access to the capital to buy the car. If money to finance the car was harder to obtain, then car prices would be cheaper, there would be less demand and less turnover of cars. This is the same in the mobile phone world, where people get continuous upgrades every 18 months.
Bitcoin is the opposite of the outside world. It teaches you about finite supply and makes you see that almost everything around us is touched by the reduction of value in our money system.
Collective responsibility
Glue sticks also provide a lesson in collective responsibility. We’ve all been in cities where there's a scooter or bike rental service for short journeys. The quality of these vehicles has been degraded. Bikes are battered, and many riders use and abuse them. Why? Because they take no personal responsibility for them.
Glue sticks teach this collective responsibility. The table of four thinks: If we want this to work, we all have to look out for our glue. There's a space the glue stick belongs to, the cap is always on, and (a negative) the table doesn’t want to share it with others. Who can blame them? The other tables have their own and we have ours.
Glue sticks teach students that for this to work, we’re in it together. It shows that if you look after this shared object, it will benefit me, but also others. Bitcoin does the same by sticking to the rules. If I choose to try and take advantage of the network, I waste energy, and therefore, waste money. If I play by the rules I also help myself, but also I help others around me too.
The abundance of pencils
Pencils in my classroom are chewed, sharpened down to nothing, and lost in books. Children know the next pencil is only around the corner and because of this, there is no responsibility for them.
This is as close to money in the real world as possible. Everyone has access to it, either through their salary or through a loan. It’s never been easier to get finance on a car, overdrafts, Klarna, and 0% down on a house.
I realise people work hard for what they have I’m not denying that. I’m suggesting that by making things easier to obtain through credit, we are making things more expensive, and people are taking less personal responsibility.
Books:
Bitcoin standard- Saifedean Ammous
The price of tomorrow-Jeff Booth
About me
Dom Payne is an energetic and adaptive educator with over 14 years of teaching experience across the UK and Spain. His personal journey with dyslexia and his early challenges in traditional educational settings have profoundly shaped his empathetic and student-centered approach to teaching. Dom's diverse background includes working in various educational environments, from primary to secondary schools, and engaging in international experiences that have broadened his perspective on learning. At Dom Payne Tutoring, he offers personalized online tutoring and innovative workshops designed to foster critical thinking and self-awareness among students aged 4 to 14. His commitment to making education accessible is reflected in his flexible pricing structure, ensuring that quality learning opportunities are available to all families
