Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
William Deresiewiczamazon.com
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Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
The winners in Smart America have withdrawn from the national life of their fellow Americans. Christopher Lasch, writing in the early 1990s when this withdrawal was young, called it “the revolt of the elites.” Between meritocracy and democracy, it’s the first that dominates their waking hours, commands their unthinking devotion, and drives them, li
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
I was young, naive, and plagued by impostor syndrome. I held back instead of exploring more, engaging more deeply, and seeking out more challenges. I allowed myself to be carried along by the current, rather than actively charting my own course. Youth is wasted on the young.
Why pretend to be smart and play it safe? True understanding is rare and ha... See more
Why pretend to be smart and play it safe? True understanding is rare and ha... See more
Murat Demirbas • My Time at MIT
Shall the world be confined to one Paris or one Oxford forever? Cannot students be boarded here and get a liberal education under the skies of Concord? Can we not hire some Abelard to lecture to us?
Henry David Thoreau • Walden (AmazonClassics Edition)
“The system forgot to teach them, along the way to the prestige admissions and the lucrative jobs, that the most important achievements can’t be measured by a letter or a number or a name,” Deresiewicz wrote. “It forgot that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers.
Chris Hedges • Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
With so many resources devoted to the business of elite academics and so many people scrambling for the limited space at the top of the ladder, it is worth asking what exactly it is you get in the end—what it is we all get, because the elite students of today, as their institutions never tire of reminding them, are the leaders of tomorrow.