Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and

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

A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nationâ€™s top schools should beâ€”but arenâ€™tâ€”providing: â€œThe ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those â€˜sheepâ€™), pushy parents, and admissions mayhemâ€ (People).

As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nationâ€™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 Yaleâ€™s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to â€œpracticalâ€ 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.

â€œExcellent Sheep is likely to makeâ€¦a lasting markâ€¦.He takes aim at just about the entirety of upper-middle-class life in Americaâ€¦.Mr. Deresiewiczâ€™s book is packed full of what he wants more of in American life: passionate weirdnessâ€ (The New York Times).
Country USA
Manufacturer Free Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2014-08-19
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Free Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2014-08-19
Format	Kindle eBook

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

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