This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign
When Lucy Kellaway left the Financial Times and retrained as an economics teacher, she could not have predicted how the cryptocurrency craze would sweep through British classrooms.
“This is what young teenage boys talk about every single break time; boasting really, really loudly about their gains and passing on tips,” she says. “The thing that frightens me most is they believe that because so much money has been made over the past few years, that will continue.”
Teens often get around the age limits on cryptocurrency trading platforms by creating accounts in their parents’ names, she says.
However clued up they might think they are about crypto, she is concerned that there’s nothing on the school curriculum to teach them about the risks of unregulated investments, or even basic financial literacy.
“Kids leave school without knowing that tax is going to be taken off their payslip,” she says. “They don’t have a clue what average salaries are, but they’re being whipped…
