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Wanted to follow-up on my summary of the excellent and incisive Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz with my 10 favorite quotes from the book. Deresiewicz’s skewering of the Ivy League / elite education is made even better by his great writing.

He exposes uncomfortable truths about how we’ve constructed systems that claim to reward merit but often reward conformity, how we’ve confused achievement with learning, and how we’ve created a generation of successful but unfulfilled young people.

“Kid getting into elite school is parents getting an A for parenting… Child is extension of the self. It is parental narcissism at its finest.”

“If students were told they had to stand on their head to get into Harvard, they’d do it as eagerly, diligently, skillfully and as thoughtlessly as they do everything else.”

“Parents tell kids not to take the same risks that made them who they are.”

“Self esteem is a ballon that must be kept inflated by the hot air of approval.”

Re: diversity — “They’re not meeting all kinds of people. They’re meeting the same kinds of people who come from all kinds of places. This is elite university diversity.”

“Why do folks goto Guatemala to do community service when there are needs here? Confronting challenges in your own society is a lot more fraught. It requires you acknowledge you are complicit in the problems.”

“Resume jockeys devoid of discernible passion carefully maneuvering their way to the top.” (Note: when referring to what is rewarded today.)

“We reward joiners because we mandate activities. We insist on leadership so we reward climbers. We value those who give us what we want so we reward manipulators.”

“It is hard to build your soul when everyone around you is selling theirs.”

“The elite have bought self perpetuation at the price of their kids happiness. The more hoops kids have to jump through, the fewer kids who can do it.”

If you read this far, some related essays you’ll also like:

1. Degrees of deception: How America’s universities became debt factories
2. Bread, circuses and education
3. The School of Entrepreneuring
4. From myth to measurement: Rethinking US News & World Report College Rankings
5. The perverse incentives driving America’s government schools
6. The endless ladder
7. Students are solving the wrong problems
8. Your kids grades are bullshit
9. Ghost nonprofits and the manufacturing of virtue