Excellent
Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful
Life
This critique of the elite higher education
system is an excellent book by a former Yale English professor that should be
read by every university president, college admissions officer, and student
headed to college, because it applies to all colleges in some degree. This does
not mean that it is without bias. In my view, the major problem with higher
education today is the indoctrination of students in the PC-progressive world view.
Deresiewicz either doesn’t notice this or thinks it is how things should be, because
he is a progressive. Universities believe in every kind of diversity except
diversity of opinion. Saying anything not PC in the prevailing zeitgeist is the
quickest way out of the university for a student or a professor. Thomas Sowell,
PhD says, “The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask
how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.”
With a school-teacher father, I didn’t
have the money or academic background to think about college. I made the best
decision of my like; I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after high
school in 1964. If you want diversity and an education in people very different
from you, the Corps is the place. You will meet real people solving real
problems. I learned more there than in college.
Following Vietnam, I left the Corps to go
to college, planning a political career, earning an AA in Liberal Arts and a BA
in government. I had to take the SATs to get in, and four years after my dismal
high school efforts, I scored in the 95/98 percentile. A counselor at MWCC
advised me to apply to Clark University, but I didn’t want the debt and went to
University of Massachusetts. When I was at U-Mass in 1970, there were two Republicans
on the political science faculty. The rest were Democrats or Socialists. It is
probably worse now. We undergrads knew we were there to pay the bills, as few
resources we devoted to teaching. I found better instructors at both MWCC and
Fitchburg State, where I earned a masters’ in history. (Only because I love
history.)
The year I graduated from U-Mass, I was elected
to the Massachusetts State Senate. I was the only U-Mass grad in the body. I
served five terms, earning my masters’ at night, and spending six more years in
the Marine Reserves. And I retired undefeated to become an association
executive, a career that was good to me until I was forced to retire in 2013 to
have a lung transplant. I am Deresiewicz’s ideal; a student who set my own
course. At 76, I continue to educate myself, reading at least a book a week,
and continuously writing, including over 400 life stories for vets at the VA.
I recommend you read Deresiewicz’s book,
but think about both it and what I say with a skeptic’s heart. Still, I wish I’d
had a course with him. Maybe he should apply for a position at a small public
college?
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