Never have I read a book where I was so fascinated by the author's perspective and thinking while still disagreeing with him on so many points. Deresiewicz was an English professor at Yale, and this book basically rips on Yale (and Harvard and Princeton and well, you get the idea).

My goodness this guy can write. He puts forth many arguments about how our meritocratic educational system merely serves as a way to keep the upper middle class in power. He blasts all education except for the strict definition of liberal arts. He dismisses elite schools while elevating (what I consider to be) elitist educational objectives.

You can read an encapsulation of his perspectives here:
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/#.VWsU9s-...

His book expands on the topic.

I found myself highlighting again and again. Even things I didn't agree with, I was highlighting - - that's how well he puts forth his case. He made me really think, and I couldn't just dismiss his thinking out of hand. He totally gets a hat tip from me on that front.

Here are some insights that grabbed me.

On parenting:

"Both kinds of parenting, finally, are forms of overidentification. The helicopter parent turns the child into an instrument of her will. The overindulgent parent projects his own need for limitless freedom and security. In either case, the child is made to function as an extension of somebody else."

On Amy Chua (author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother):

"The needs that drive her reign of terror (the term is not too strong) are a compound of panicked perfectionism and an infantile sense of entitlement."

On perfectionism:

"Perfectionism, Levine explains, is a desperate attempt to stave off criticism - which, as practiced in ambitious households, is not the disapproval of a child's actions, but the condemnation of her very self."

On learning:

"It doesn't simply mean developing the mental skills particular to individual disciplines - how to solve an equation or construct a study or analyze a text - or even acquiring the ability to work across the disciplines. It means developing the habit of skepticism and the capacity to put it into practice. It means learning not to take things for granted, so you can reach your own conclusions."

Some things he says are not new, but he says them so well. And yet, the pragmatic part of me didn't really agree with many things he said. His idealism just struck me as a tad too ivory tower to me - - which was ironic because in the end he totally condemns elite educational institutions, like Yale, as perpetuating income inequality and creating mediocre leaders. There seemed to be some inconsistencies in his argument, but the individual components are rendered beautifully.

Definitely well worth reading if you are interested in education, or even if you are just concerned with the state of our country. ( )

This was a very transformative book. Especially since i was reading it while spending a weekend with a group of ivy league lawyers. ( )

A wake-up call aimed at the privileged, blindered class that I belong to, that has much to say about how narrow and how empty much of the college experience has become at elite institutions. There are no big answers here but a lot of pointed advice to young people trying to get into an Ivy League school, and why they might be disappointed if they succeed. ( )

Deresiewicz is an excellent writer, as one would hope. He makes many points throughout his higher education book, many with which I agreed and some with which I did not. Though he sometimes contradicted himself, when he made a point with which I agreed, he articulated it perfectly. Many have and will continue to fault Deresiewicz for seemingly ignoring the larger population of college students in reality today, but he never intends to address every student everywhere, and makes it clear in the title of the book which group he will focus on. The only spot in which his laser focus disturbed me was in his discussion of MOOCs and online education. He may be right that the traditional 18-24 year old college student breaking into adulthood would do better to attend a brick and mortar college, but MOOCs and even more so other forms of online education are ideal for nontraditional students - adults with jobs and families returning to school. Because of these applications, Deresiewicz should be careful about ruling online education out completely. Interestingly, Deresiewicz's intended audience is students themselves - those in college and preparing for college. This may explain his frequent use of profanity. Nonetheless, I think Excellent Sheep is an important book for students to read, if only to encourage them to have a goal and a passion and work toward it, rather than working toward success for the sake of success. ( )

Just glanced at, got the point