Can Steemit incentivize learning for kids?

There are so many opportunities on the Steemit platform we haven't tapped or even imagined yet! One of those is incentivized education. A system of "schooling" where kids have a financial incentive to learn. This could work for all ages of student, but as someone interested in translating Austrian economics down to the level kids can understand, I would love to see an incentivized education platform for elementary-aged children.

In discussing this with @derekaretih I've become really encouraged. A few days ago, he posted his video conversation with @kdnolan and @tommcgann that lays out a hopeful vision of incentivized education here:
https://steemit.com/steem/@derekareith/steemedu-steem-s-future-role-with-education-google-hangout-with-kieran-nolan-and-tom-mcgann

I had mentioned to Derek that I'd like to use my economics book for kids, Cost Benefit Jr., in a similar way. Is the teaching of basic economics necessary? It's obviously not being taught in public schools, and it's not included in many private school or homeschool curricula, either. I think it's incredibly necessary, not only for these future adults to be empowered to understand the economics being foisted on them by their governments, but also to understand how economic realities affect them, even as kids. For example:

• how marginal utility works when you eat from a buffet
• how ownership makes sharing possible and moral
• how opportunity cost can influence how they spend their allowance
• how any social situation is actually a market

Derek suggested that I should try holding an experimental class:

I think it might be worthwhile to try posting an optional assignment here on Steemit. Create a tag for your class and see how it goes. They can upvote your post for attendance and then post their answers in the comments. Perhaps it can be more of a creative project so they each have subjective content to add, thus eliminating the cheating factor. You then review, upvote the quality content, while replying with advice so they can improve where needed. Students can upvote one another's answers and your responses as well. This should help send signals to you as far as what stuff resonates the best with your students.

And I've been thinking about how to structure this. The teacher/school (T/S) account would need a large-enough wallet to be capable of profitable upvotes for student work. Therefore, it would take some time and investment to build a T/S account. One way to do this would be by selling the textbook just as you would for any class, but using the proceeds to fund and power up the T/S Steemit account. Once it reaches criticality, the teacher could give valuable upvotes for student posts and comments that show an understanding of the subject matter. And as the class is completely transparent, the larger Steemit community could also reward student learning.

The students could also encourage one another. To do all this (both classwork and social encouragement), students would need their own Steemit accounts, and I see a potential problem here. Younger students may not have Facebook or Reddit accounts. Their parents may not want them to have such accounts. Or, a student might already have an account on Steemit that is well funded, giving them an advantage over students new to Steemit. (Would this disadvantage hurt anyone? I'm not entirely sure.) But to circumvent some of these situations, the T/S could manage a set of student accounts that are all funded at an equal level at the outset of each class. Students could be given a public posting key and allowed to borrow the account for the duration of the class, at the end of which, they could keep the account's "profit." Of course, roughly half of what they'd earned would be in the form of SP, but the T/S would be keeping that anyway, and could then "purchase" it from the student, which would allow the student to receive all of their profit in Steem Dollars.

These are just initial thoughts. I'd love to open this idea up to the community and hear feedback. Finding the right structure will be a process of trail and error. But if this idea appeals to you, please join us in the discussion, or run with it yourself! I'd love to see all sorts of teachers/schools spring up on Steemit, creating incentives to learn!

geke.us is a website – for geeks who eke – dedicated to making economic concepts easy to understand. Our economics curriculum for kids, Cost Benefit Jr., uses stories to show how things like opportunity cost, sharing, and marginal utility actually work in a child's world. We also produce the venn diagrams showing the overlap of government and big business.