Excellent Sheep Audiobook By William Deresiewicz cover art

Excellent Sheep

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

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Excellent Sheep

By: William Deresiewicz
Narrated by: Mel Foster
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.61

Buy for $14.61

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation'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.

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 Yale's admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways. Deresiewicz explains how college should be a time for self-discovery, when students can establish their own values and measures of success, so they can forge their own path. He addresses parents, students, educators, and anyone who's interested in the direction of American society, featuring quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and clearly presenting solutions.

©2014 William Deresiewicz (P)2014 Tantor
Education Sociology Student Thought-Provoking
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"An urgent summons to a long-overdue debate over what universities do and how they do it." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Excellent Sheep

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    255
  • 4 Stars
    133
  • 3 Stars
    48
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    11
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    225
  • 4 Stars
    103
  • 3 Stars
    38
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    202
  • 4 Stars
    105
  • 3 Stars
    46
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    9

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best In Class!

I pass this title to all I know with children

Please do the same thing for your friends and family.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

read before saving for kids college education

if I told you a book was going to save you $10,000 would you read it? how about $40,000?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Fantastic reminders of how we can support our kids in the challenging system/ world we live in. Ideas challenged and myths debunked about higher education. It reassured me that there is not one right answer for anyone, and what an education really means.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Really made you think.

Realistically with how the world is today, this book accurately describes where we've come from and where we are going. This book has changed how I view my life. I have spent a majority of it pushing towards the same direction as my peers and after this book, I have changed how I think entirely. Worth a read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking book on huge education

I enjoyed the book, but found it to be long on prose and slow to develop. It was kind of a slow read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very informative and insightful, not practical.

The author does a great job outlining the elitist problem both in modern academia and the political ruling class. He makes a reasonable argument for the need of the humanities in the lives of average man and why it should be requied in every liberal arts degree. But I find his solutions a little vague and impractical. Demanding that people act against their own self interest is not likely to succeed, particularly in today's culture.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening. Boring narration. Worth the listen.

Good content with great use of statistics and analytics to introduce insightful data surrounding affluence, education, and socioeconomic mobility.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A frank discussion of credentialism

Maybe I listened to this book at just the right time, but I found it excellent. As I try to look at educational options for my young children, this book addressed many of the issues I’ve been wrestling with. It left me hopeful for the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Don’t be an Excellent Sheep

I really enjoyed this book. Extremely informative. It really makes you think about your entire education as a whole and makes you question the educational system as a whole.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Perpetual Privilege

The book is thought provoking relative to the perpetuation of privilege among those in the correct class. The conclusions however left me uninspired. It is too simple to say we have enough money to fix this problem. Our choices not only require choosing correctly where to spend but undoing the growing bubble of public workers' pension entitlements. Silence concerning this trap created by our governing elite is suspiciously absent.
Overall I liked it because it made me think.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful