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cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition
3.0
Recommended by Rob. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sexcellent%20sheep__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold
anitaofplaybooktag's review against another edition
4.0
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-6eUk
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.
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-6eUk
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.
annuich's review against another edition
Realizing that this book has not aged well. I read this book required for a class I never took the summer before my senior year of high school. Reading an old white male ex-Yale professor say everything I’ve heard millions of times since graduating college and talk about young people in a super patronizing way was not why I wanted to try picking this up again. I remember sorta liking and finding some value the first time I read it in 2015, but now everything has already been said by so many others and so much better. Also he fails to mention in the first chapter how much financial costs and capitalism are a core reason for the issue at hand, which just shows the type of audience this book was written for. Writing a book calling kids “sheep” for going to expensive schools and jumping through hoops while not “actually learning” without mentioning financial costs and other significant social and cultural barriers to academia that make students and young graduates risk-averse is very tone deaf.
andersonh92's review against another edition
5.0
Wow!
I have a newfound appreciation for my undergraduate alma mater for being a liberal arts college. They really started my education journey for me.
I loved this book! Very eye-opening!
I have a newfound appreciation for my undergraduate alma mater for being a liberal arts college. They really started my education journey for me.
I loved this book! Very eye-opening!
michellelamp's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars really. I liked the first half better than the last few parts. It felt like it got too ranty and personal toward the end, and that turned me off. But I loved a lot of what he said about the impact our society's obsession with rankings, grades, and achievements has on the human elements of learning. Definitely worth the read for me.
anneliehyatt's review against another edition
4.0
This book should be a necessary read for high school juniors about to go through the college process. As a rising freshman at Barnard, this certainly has made me even more unsure of my decision. It is time that we stop associating the Ivies with the best education or the best college experience, when the truth is this: you don't go to an Ivy because of the college experience. You go there because of the opportunities it will bring you. There is a reason why so many of the people that have fucked us over have come from Yale.
Moreover, we should end the myth that people go to prestigious colleges because they are smart. Many of them are legacies. Several more of them are faculty brats. All of them are basically rich. We should stop expecting colleges to be country clubs (do you really need to live in a swanky dorm, or eat the best food?) and future employers to just pat us on the back for going to an Ivy. We should put more money into public colleges, yes, but more importantly we should put more money in public K-12 schools.
In short, perhaps I am still just a little jealous but Ivy kids and their parents could really stand to get over themselves. Now, please.
Moreover, we should end the myth that people go to prestigious colleges because they are smart. Many of them are legacies. Several more of them are faculty brats. All of them are basically rich. We should stop expecting colleges to be country clubs (do you really need to live in a swanky dorm, or eat the best food?) and future employers to just pat us on the back for going to an Ivy. We should put more money into public colleges, yes, but more importantly we should put more money in public K-12 schools.
In short, perhaps I am still just a little jealous but Ivy kids and their parents could really stand to get over themselves. Now, please.
niyatee_narkar's review against another edition
5.0
A jolting lesson on the purpose of higher education. Excellent sheep or critical thinkers? If we aren't realising the difference, those undergraduate years have been a waste and yes you have been cheated on by your alma mater and the system that makes it next to impossible to not train sheeps to be led into a job market slaughterhouse.
I so wish I had read this earlier.
Moreover, it also calls out the elite/selective schools (yes, the Ivy leagues, take the IITs for India) for continuing to perpetuate a class system. About time we also understand our privilege and relate it to exactly why we (more specifically to India) need to preserve affirmative action/reservations.
The 'Plumbers Syndrome' coined by the author out of his eye-opening life experience will definitely stay with me forever as an epitome of the class-divide we don't seem to acknowledge or do anything to change. Or atleast until we do anything about it.
P. S: will try to post some excellent highlights I ought to read from time to time.
I so wish I had read this earlier.
Moreover, it also calls out the elite/selective schools (yes, the Ivy leagues, take the IITs for India) for continuing to perpetuate a class system. About time we also understand our privilege and relate it to exactly why we (more specifically to India) need to preserve affirmative action/reservations.
The 'Plumbers Syndrome' coined by the author out of his eye-opening life experience will definitely stay with me forever as an epitome of the class-divide we don't seem to acknowledge or do anything to change. Or atleast until we do anything about it.
P. S: will try to post some excellent highlights I ought to read from time to time.