I am not convinced that this is morally superior to selling opium. This depends critically on how much use the marginal student actually gets out of English.
Now SAT tutoring, that is certainly morally inferior to selling opium. (Inferior, not equal, for obvious utility reasons.)
One thing I can tell you is that if a child has a native English speaker teaching them, their English is pretty much guaranteed to be better than if they don’t. At many schools, Chinese teachers who have never been outside of China will be the ones teaching the kids English—their English is horrible & often they will be punishing the children for getting something “wrong” when they are more likely than not the ones mistaken.
I am not convinced that this is morally superior to selling opium. This depends critically on how much use the marginal student actually gets out of English.
Now SAT tutoring, that is certainly morally inferior to selling opium. (Inferior, not equal, for obvious utility reasons.)
...and how much utility people actually get out of opium.
One thing I can tell you is that if a child has a native English speaker teaching them, their English is pretty much guaranteed to be better than if they don’t. At many schools, Chinese teachers who have never been outside of China will be the ones teaching the kids English—their English is horrible & often they will be punishing the children for getting something “wrong” when they are more likely than not the ones mistaken.
Er, that seems pretty massive to me. Access to the English internet by itself seems worthwhile.