Reviews for Excellent Sheep

by William Deresiewicz

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The kids are all wrong-especially the superachievers at the nation's top universities-according to this stinging indictment of American higher education. Culture critic Deresiewicz (A Jane Austen Education) expands his notorious American Scholar essay into a jeremiad against elite colleges, the Ivy League and, in particular, Yale, where he taught English. Students, he argues, are "smart and talented and driven... but also anxious, timid, and lost"; narcissistic helicopter parents-Tiger-Mom Amy Chua gets lambasted-pressure them to trade fulfillment for money and status. According to the author, colleges with indifferent teaching and incoherent curricula offer no guidance on intellectual development or character formation; the whole system reinforces a class hierarchy that "equates virtue, dignity, and happiness with material success." Entwined with his j'accuse is an impassioned, idealistic plea to reclaim the undergraduate years as a journey of self-discovery guided by engaged professors who challenge students to think for themselves instead of following the flock to Wall Street. Deresiewicz's critique of America's most celebrated schools as temples of mercenary mediocrity is lucid, sharp-edged, and searching, and if he sometimes too easily dismisses the practical expectations surrounding ruinously expensive degrees, he poses vital questions about what college teaches-and why. Agent: Elyse Cheney, Elyse Cheney Literary Associates. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

"They've learned to be students," writes Deresiewicz (What the Ivy League Won't Teach You) of contemporary American undergraduates, "not to use their minds." The difference between those distinctions is the focus of this crabby book, which also provides bitter indictments of higher educational institutions and the students attending them. The result is repetitive and interminable. A typical complaint is that few of his students "saw college as part of a larger project of intellectual discovery and development, one that they directed by themselves and for themselves." A pedagog lecturing students about their inability to learn is pompous, but this is especially insulting as it is intended for an audience of hardworking students and parents paying for college. Mel Foster's even-toned delivery ameliorates the discouraging words, but the discouragement is endless. VERDICT Credit Deresiewicz for calling it like it is; college "these days" is a system concerned with class, not necessarily education. However, criticizing higher education because it no longer conforms to an anachronistic ideal of what "liberal arts" means is a willfully facile argument.-Douglas C. Lord, New Britain P.L., CT (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* It might surprise the countless students competing for admission to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford that they could be fighting for a dubious prize. But in this probing indictment, a former Yale professor accuses America's top universities of turning young people into tunnel-visioned careerists, adept at padding their resumes and filling their bank accounts but unprepared to confront life's most important questions. Craven conformity, not free-spirited independence, is what Deresiewicz sees students learning in a campus world populated by hyperspecialized professors who pursue arcane research agendas and leave the teaching of undergraduates to adjuncts and TAs. The time has come, Deresiewicz asserts, for college professors and administrators to make students their first priority by giving them a challenging liberal-arts education. Grounded in the humanities, such an education would give students real intellectual and imaginative breadth, not just a professional credential. Besides pressing for this curricular and pedagogical realignment, Deresiewicz calls for radical reform of admissions policies, so reversing the trends that make the university an enforcer of caste hierarchies. Deresiewicz's controversial full agenda indeed means an end to rule by meritocracy and a beginning of fairness for the working class. An urgent summons to a long-overdue debate over what universities do and how they do it.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2010 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An extended essay about how elite colleges and universities are failing to serve students and society.Deresiewicz (A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter, 2012, etc.) received an elite education at Columbia University and taught at both Yale and his alma mater. The author uses his experience to deliver an indictment of top-tier higher education, especially regarding undergraduate students. Deresiewicz does not advocate thatintelligent, motivated students eschew acollege degree. Instead, he presents a program for how the students, their parents, government officials and the private sector can push college administrators and professors to graduate truly educated citizens. The author is unrelentingly critical of students who attend college just because it is expected or might increase their future incomes. In the authors opinion, most elite college educations are merely extensions of elite high school educations, with students more interested in good grades and resume padding than in finding their true passions. Its likely that the author will reach readers who confirm his dark critique of American higher education, but its just as likely that the book will find detractorsnot only due to its deep pessimism, but also due to the authors selective supporting evidence. When Deresiewicz states that elite colleges "do little or nothing to wake students up from the values and habits they bring with them from high school, he offers little more than weak circumstantial anecdotes. Many of the authors anecdotes are interesting case studies, but even those are often presented only superficially. Deresiewiczs desire for change is admirable, and he is not mistaken about the many problems of higher education. This book has its genesis in an essay published by theAmerican Scholar, an essay the author describes as"cranky." While expanding that essay into a book, the author falls into repetition that might be construed as padding.An unquestionably provocative book that hopefully leads to productive debate. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Culture critic Deresiewicz offers a hard-hitting critique of elite education. According to the author, colleges with indifferent teaching and incoherent curricula offer no guidance on intellectual development or character formation; the system reinforces class hierarchy. Reader Foster narrates Deresiewicz's jeremiad with a deep and engaging voice that commands listeners' attention and complements the weight of the overall argument. Yet his cadence is natural and manages to capture Deresiewicz's tone while smoothing over the long passages where the author might otherwise be construed as condescending. A Free Press hardcover. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.