Passage # 33:
A book that left a lasting impression on me was Micro-motives and Macro-behaviour (1978) by Thomas Schelling who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 2005. Its central message remains unforgettable what is good for an individual can often be bad for the group. Micro-sense can be macro-madness. I recalled this phenomenon because of the current debate on the language of instruction in early childhood. I have noticed that no matter how much rigorous evidence is presented in support of the mother tongue, the exact same objections are repeated without fail one, we would be left behind in the world without teaching toddlers in English and, two, parents want to educate their toddlers in English.
The first objection is negated by so much real-world experience that it can only be characterized as silly despite teaching in English; we have been left far behind by countries that teach in their own languages. And, in any case, teaching in the first language in the early years does not preclude learning English later in school. Once again, there is ample evidence that the latter is actually a better sequencing for learning English confident students learn everything better than confused ones.It is the second objection that provides a perfect illustration of `micro-sense and macro-madness`. In Pakistan, English has been made a requirement for a good job and therefore it makes sense for a parent to give his or her child the benefit of that advantage. Failing to do so would disadvantage the child with respect to other children educated in English. Since no parent wishes their child to be left behind, all of them end up demanding English as the language of education. But this results in collective harm because the evidence is irrefutable that early education in an alien language is extremely harmful for cognitive development of the human capital that is the primary resource of any country. (325)