Glad to see discussion and suggestions for ways to reach out to people currently still at school! Thanks for the contribution.
“I want to discuss a possible modification to the strategy of high school outreach—specifically targeting high-level STEM (+logic, philosophy, and debate) competitors. It seems that this narrowing down would select for people who would be more likely to act on EA ideas.”
My sense is that this slightly misrepresents the current landscape. I think that, when it comes to school outreach, there are many possible combinations of the following variables:
(1) age of target audience, e.g. 11-15 years old, 16-18 years old, 18 years old only, etc.
(2) outreach methods and proxies that you use as indicators of promisingness, e.g. high performing schools, olympiad participants, performance on an application process, recommendation from teachers, etc.
(3) format, e.g. written online advice, an online course, a summer camp, an after school club, integrated into assemblies, etc.
(4) focus cause/intervention area, e.g. all of EA, longtermism, extinction risk reduction, AI safety, rationality, etc.
(5) “ask” and key metrics you, e.g. changing degree programmes, signing up for a newsletter, reading X resources, joining an EA group once they reach university, etc.
(6) marketing strategy, e.g. career benefits, help you land a place at uni, impactful in itself, intrinsically interesting, etc.
I think that very few of the possible permutations have been tried. So your post proposes something specific within the second variable category I offered. That seems good, and I’d be keen to see more exploration. But I don’t think that there’s a very extensive current “strategy of high school outreach.” Given that the EA movement currently has quite a lot of funding and there are a decent number of people interested in EA movement building, I think the focus should be more on adding to the current portfolio of efforts than redirecting it.
It’s possible we already agree here and I was just reading too much into your exact phrasing.
One even more nitpicky comment:
“It seems that university outreach is more effective than high school outreach according to current metrics, and that one of the main factors making high school outreach ineffective is a lack of selection.”
I think I’ve read all the posts in the Forum’s “effective altruism outreach in schools” tag, and neither of the two clauses in this summary sentence fitted well with my memory/impression. I’d be interested in elaboration, clarification, or supporting links/evidence if you’re happy to provide it!
Thanks for your engagement with this important topic.
Glad to see discussion and suggestions for ways to reach out to people currently still at school! Thanks for the contribution.
“I want to discuss a possible modification to the strategy of high school outreach—specifically targeting high-level STEM (+logic, philosophy, and debate) competitors. It seems that this narrowing down would select for people who would be more likely to act on EA ideas.”
My sense is that this slightly misrepresents the current landscape. I think that, when it comes to school outreach, there are many possible combinations of the following variables:
(1) age of target audience, e.g. 11-15 years old, 16-18 years old, 18 years old only, etc. (2) outreach methods and proxies that you use as indicators of promisingness, e.g. high performing schools, olympiad participants, performance on an application process, recommendation from teachers, etc. (3) format, e.g. written online advice, an online course, a summer camp, an after school club, integrated into assemblies, etc. (4) focus cause/intervention area, e.g. all of EA, longtermism, extinction risk reduction, AI safety, rationality, etc. (5) “ask” and key metrics you, e.g. changing degree programmes, signing up for a newsletter, reading X resources, joining an EA group once they reach university, etc. (6) marketing strategy, e.g. career benefits, help you land a place at uni, impactful in itself, intrinsically interesting, etc.
I think that very few of the possible permutations have been tried. So your post proposes something specific within the second variable category I offered. That seems good, and I’d be keen to see more exploration. But I don’t think that there’s a very extensive current “strategy of high school outreach.” Given that the EA movement currently has quite a lot of funding and there are a decent number of people interested in EA movement building, I think the focus should be more on adding to the current portfolio of efforts than redirecting it.
It’s possible we already agree here and I was just reading too much into your exact phrasing.
One even more nitpicky comment:
“It seems that university outreach is more effective than high school outreach according to current metrics, and that one of the main factors making high school outreach ineffective is a lack of selection.”
I think I’ve read all the posts in the Forum’s “effective altruism outreach in schools” tag, and neither of the two clauses in this summary sentence fitted well with my memory/impression. I’d be interested in elaboration, clarification, or supporting links/evidence if you’re happy to provide it!
Thanks for your engagement with this important topic.