Excellent Sheep Excellent Sheep

Excellent Sheep

The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life

    • 4.1 • 75 Ratings
    • $14.99

Publisher Description

A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nation’s top schools should be—but aren’t—providing: “The ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those ‘sheep’), pushy parents, and admissions mayhem” (People).

As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically and creatively and how to find a sense of purpose. Now he argues that elite colleges are turning out conformists without a compass.

Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to “practical” subjects like economics, students are losing the ability to think independently. It is essential, says Deresiewicz, that college be a time for self-discovery when students can establish their own values and measures of success in order to forge their own paths. He features quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and offering clear solutions on how to fix it.

Excellent Sheep is likely to make…a lasting mark….He takes aim at just about the entirety of upper-middle-class life in America….Mr. Deresiewicz’s book is packed full of what he wants more of in American life: passionate weirdness” (The New York Times).

GENRE
Nonfiction
RELEASED
2014
August 19
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
256
Pages
PUBLISHER
Free Press
SELLER
Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC
SIZE
4.3
MB

Customer Reviews

Beeemuzik ,

iPhone version p 383 cuts off

Great book so far but please fix glitch in iPhone version p 383. Text cuts off.

Ka Ramses ,

Book about writing, not just college

This book may just as well be about writing, if you pay attention beyond the what to the how. Every page has a quotable phrase or two. Arguments are tight and convincing.
But it's mainly about the politics of elite educational institutions in the US.

In Defense of Elitism In Defense of Elitism
1994
What Tech Calls Thinking What Tech Calls Thinking
2020
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
2013
On Paradise Drive On Paradise Drive
2004
Bobos in Paradise Bobos in Paradise
2010
The Two Cultures The Two Cultures
2012
A Jane Austen Education A Jane Austen Education
2011
The Death of the Artist The Death of the Artist
2020
The End of Solitude The End of Solitude
2022
Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets
2005
El rebaño excelente El rebaño excelente
2019
La muerte del artista La muerte del artista
2021
The Working Poor The Working Poor
2004
Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be
2015
Closing of the American Mind Closing of the American Mind
2008
Reading with Patrick Reading with Patrick
2017
The Square and the Tower The Square and the Tower
2018
Empire of Illusion Empire of Illusion
2009