aelephant comments on Economy gossip open thread - Less Wrong

22 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 28 October 2012 04:10AM

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Comment author: Athrelon 28 October 2012 04:29:17PM *  2 points [-]

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.)

Comment author: aelephant 28 October 2012 10:35:02PM 5 points [-]

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.