EA for High School Students

I've seen a lot of discussion recently about exploring spreading the effective altruism movement to high school students.
I find this to be extremely interesting, because I think that more and more, people are coming to the conclusion that allowing high school students to discover EA would be really beneficial. As the student leader of a high school EA club, I couldn't agree more.
On the other hand, I understand that one concern that people were voicing was that major EA concepts might fly over the heads of most high school students. Such concepts might be earning to give or effective charity evaluation. Though it could be said that as a high school student I understand these concepts, say I'm not the average high school student, and my EA understanding is not representative of high school students as a whole.
The truth tells quite a different story- because many high school students have either university or the workplace not far ahead of them, they are certainly inclined to think about optimizing their future for the common good. Because of this, high school is an excellent time to begin introducing EA topics to people.
Combining youthful idealism with a practical future focus is something that would definitely attract high school students to effective altruism.

E or A? Why Not Both? (Part 2)

In the last blog post, I discussed the importance of uniting "Es" (rationalists) and "As" (altruists) through effective altruism.
However, you're probably wondering how to determine whether someone is an "E", an "A", or somewhere in between in the first place. This is a totally logical question to ask, because determining where to start with people is hugely important in getting someone interested in effective altruism.
It's quite simplistic to say that someone is either "E" or "A", but the whole purpose of wondering that in the first place is to have a good understanding of how someone can start comprehending effective altruism and its importance. Therefore, determining where to start the conversation with the person is very crucial.
First, it's never a bad idea to ask the person what hobbies he or she might have. This will help you to move the conversation along, moving them through a rational thought process of voluntarily understanding effective altruism.
Some hobbies are more "E", like finance and coding, while others are more "A", like activism or giving advice. Being able to identify whether an interest is more "E" or "A" is only helps to determine whether effectiveness needs to be incorporated into someone's altruism or vice versa, and this shouldn't be used to categorize people or make them feel like they're lacking something.
In my next blog post, I'll discuss three steps that really help move this process along, the first one involving asking about people's interests and hobbies, which I've mentioned above.

E or A? Why Not Both? (Part 1)

In this blog post, the first of two blogs on uniting the "Es" and the "As", I'll discuss how I first came about this problem, and then came upon a clear, very beneficial solution.
When I first started leading effective altruist modules at my school's Amnesty International club, I had a mixed bag of kids at my school to bring into the club or to bring back into it. Just like with countless cross country teams I've been apart of, no matter how many or few trophies you won last year, each year is a completely clean slate- you have to start all over again.
Sure, we had had the club at my school for a long time, but I was worried that at the end of last year, interest in the club was dwindling. It was nothing personal against me or previous club leaders, as it certainly wasn't one or a few people's faults. However, there was in general a disconnect in the school, a kind of division. The few kids who showed up to the meetings could be classified as "A"- altruists. They were the idealists, and this idealism made the rest of the school roll their eyes, because the other kids were wondering when the idealists would finally come back down to Earth and be realistic.
Those who at that time rolled their eyes could be classified as "E"- effective. By now, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this- the two groups needed common ground in order to truly be effective altruists.
As the new club director, I had to expand the club, and being more divisive would only repel kids from it and make it smaller. Having just become aware of the importance of effective altruism earlier in 2013, I knew that there was an easy answer to this problem- I needed to make the club more EA.
I remember the moment I started having a club meeting when one of my running teammates said something like, "Oh, Amnesty. All that bleeding-heart idealistic stuff."
"Well, this year, we're looking into effective altruism. We're using rationality and evidence to back our decisions in making the world a better place," I had to respond.
Believe it or not, that got him to join the club, and he is arguably one of its most active members now. To me, that is honestly one of the greatest success stories of my short, 18-year-old life. The club was certainly expanding, and I couldn't have been happier. I was creating something unique- an EA club in a small high school in the little state of Delaware, of all places.
In my next blog post, I'll talk about how to determine whether the people in your life are more inclined to be "E" or "A", and how this is important as a starting point in introducing effective altruism to them.

Opening Post

"Building the Movement" is a blog designed for EA (effective altruist) movement building.
In this blog, I'll post about ways people inside and outside the EA community can further the goals of effective altruism. So, it doesn't matter if you've been an effective altruist for years, or you don't even know what the movement is- this blog is for you.
I have a background in effective altruism because I currently direct a club at a high school that incorporates EA ideas, and gets students to think both rationally and altruistically. I hope my ideas will help spark the growth of a movement that not only should take off, but needs to take off.
I say this because there are so many major issues arising in the world. Income inequality, crises in Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela, global warming, and so many more. There are a lot of reasons to be worried, but sadly very few reasons arise to be hopeful.
Effective altruism should be one of them, because it doesn't just seek to do good; it seeks to do the most good.
I would like to welcome everyone to this movement with open arms, and I would also really appreciate any feedback that you may have regarding effective altruism or this blog. To contact me, please send an email to this address. EA is a vast movement, so there is not always ideological uniformity within it, but above all, effective altruists feel that it is necessary to do the most good in everything they do, and that is what I really love about this movement.
So, let's build it!