Everyone wants to be admitted to an Ivy League school, or hopes that their children can be admitted to an Ivy League school, because the education in an Ivy League school is an elite education, and the students in an Ivy League school are naturally elites. Moreover, some American presidents, a large number of Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, politicians, business leaders and elites active in various fields all come from Ivy League universities. Entering an Ivy League school is stepping into the social elite.

Ivy League students are smart, diligent, excellent and versatile. They can get an enviable offer immediately after graduation, directly enter the social elite, start pointing out the glorious life course of the country and even change the world. They are the "winners who can't lose at the starting line" group.

However, are Ivy League college students really as sunny, confident, wise and capable as the outside world seems? What is the essence of elite education? What influence do other universities, high schools, examination counseling institutions and other units that implement elite education have on children's growth? If elite education is harmful, how to get rid of this influence? How can we rebuild ourselves?

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The book "Excellent Sheep" shows us the other side of these problems. In the book, the evaluation of Ivy League college students is: "Although they are smart, talented and high-spirited, they are full of anxiety and timidity, and they are all moving in the same direction honestly." In short, they are a group of "excellent sheep", and many people are more confused and confused in middle age.

The book deeply analyzes the reasons for the result of "excellent sheep", reveals the negative influence of elite privilege on elite education from the actual teaching situation of elite schools and the manipulation of elite schools by society, and points out: "In contrast, those who do not have the label of Ivy League schools can attack the city and plunder the land on the road of life and achieve themselves in all directions."

Since its listing in May, 20 15, the book has caused widespread controversy in American society, and quickly became a hot topic in The New York Times, New Republic, Los Angeles Times and other major media, and was also reported by Southern Weekend, Phoenix Satellite TV, The Paper Net, Global Times, Bund Pictorial and other domestic media.

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William Deresiewicz, the author of Excellent Sheep, graduated from Columbia University, worked as an English professor at Yale University for 65,438+00 years, and served as a graduate tutor at Columbia University for 5 years. In 2008, after spending 24 years in an Ivy League school, William Deresiewicz decided to resign as a tenured teacher, because he felt that the current elite education in the United States had fallen into a misunderstanding, and the students of famous schools were wrapped in a huge privilege bubble. Since then, he has been invited to give lectures at universities all over the United States, communicate with students, answer their questions, ask them many questions, and listen to and understand their answers. Excellent Sheep is his reflection and summary of this experience.

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In Excellent Sheep, the author analyzes the reasons for the formation of this elite education from the social structure, from the performance of famous university students as "sheep" to how they become "excellent sheep", and points out that the current elite education cannot correct itself, and the only way to change it is to "quit history"

Excellent sheep are divided into four parts:

The first part is "excellent sheep", focusing on how and why famous universities cultivate "excellent sheep" from the aspects of college students' state performance, enrollment, curriculum setting, evaluation mechanism and operation mechanism.

The second part is "self", which mainly expounds that liberal arts education is the real education, and college students should dare to question it, instead of being dragged by the blindfolded wild horse of common sense. The mission of universities is to transform teenagers into adults. It is extremely absurd to only prepare for their careers and ignore other aspects of training.

The third part is "What should we get in universities", which expounds that liberal arts education should be implemented in universities and the process of knowledge generation should be explored. "University study is a direct confrontation with reality" allows students to learn to guide themselves.

The fourth part is "society". The author uses the examples of President Obama and other senior officials and corporate executives to prove the narrowness and mistakes of elite education, and points out that elite education has become a part of privileged education and social privileged management, which has seriously hindered the development of society. It is time to change all this.

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Ivy League college students have serious psychological problems.

Wherever they go, Ivy League students always bring their own aura. They are really excellent and talented. They are enviable winners and can't lose at the starting line. However, William summed up his teaching experience at Yale University: "When that incredible self-confidence and perfect shiny coat are stripped off, you will be surprised to find that these young people are being suffocated by fear, anxiety, loss and loss." This is not only Professor William's observation, but also supported by the survey data: a report entitled "The Crisis of University Campus" by the American Psychological Association mentioned that "nearly half of college students feel hopeless", and the psychological counseling service on university campus has become overcrowded.

Universities should promote people's growth, but why do elite education in famous schools cultivate "sheep" instead?

Because elite schools implement "elite education", the requirements of elite schools for courses are too sharp and strict. Students are afraid of failing classes and have to go all out to avoid innovation and failure. They will not easily get involved in courses that they are not sure to get high marks. This is a major reason why elite education will hinder their personal growth, and it is also an important reason why these college students become "excellent sheep".

The author gives a vivid explanation for this: you reached 99 points, but it will take 50% more time to get 100 points, which hinders innovation. In this respect, it is not difficult to understand why Bill Gates dropped out of the Ivy League to create Microsoft. He can't innovate because he stays in that famous school.

We once sighed at the sight of "Harvard Library at four o'clock in the morning", but now we know that it is not because they love it, but because they have turned themselves into competitive machines. In order to meet the standards of university elites, they are caught in crazy competition, but they don't know what this has to do with their hearts.

The main energy of famous schools is not in teaching.

Some people may say that the professors of top-ranking universities are also first-class, so the teaching is also first-class, but the reality is that top-ranking universities do not pay attention to teaching. "They hired a large number of part-time and temporary teaching staff to replace professors." How many excellent students will be produced under such teaching quality? Of course, there are artists and innovative figures in prestigious schools, but they are very few and cannot change the overall style of school education.

Why don't famous schools focus on teaching? Because there is a thing called the ranking of world famous schools, every year, investigation agencies rank famous schools around the world, and this ranking is directly related to the enrollment and funding sources of colleges and universities. Ranking is a good thing, which can promote universities to improve their teaching level. Most importantly, the standard of this ranking has little to do with teaching, but is closely related to teaching and scientific research, which leads famous universities to invest high-quality educational resources in scientific research instead of teaching, and it has become a common phenomenon that top professors do not attend classes.

A few years ago, there was a very popular family education book called Design of Childhood Life. This book was written by Mr. Gao, a famous American expert in education and career planning and a former senior consultant of New Oriental to study in the United States. Based on his educational experience of sending his daughter to Harvard and his professional knowledge of education, it expounds in detail the experience of how to train a child who can be admitted to Harvard, and tells everyone that if children want to enter Harvard, they must be trained according to Harvard admission standards from an early age. Reading this book will make your blood boil, and you will thoroughly understand that children who go to Harvard are actually trained in a targeted way from an early age, and it is impossible to meet the admission criteria only by preparing for the last few years.

However, according to "Youyang", these are actually not the key points. The key point is that the enrollment policy of famous schools is the embodiment of elite privilege: if you want to be versatile, you must participate in expensive artistic expertise training and professional physical training from an early age and get excellent results. After doing this, you must be in the same class as the alumni of famous schools, and have a good talk with them, because without the recommendation of alumni, famous schools are. All this requires you to be born in an elite family, otherwise the wealth and social resources you can use and the "foresight" of your family will not help you enter a prestigious school.

The admission conditions of prestigious schools will not only affect the education of children by a small number of families. "Youyang" mentioned: "Some places have begun to relieve the pressure for students. For example, Richwood Town, a wealthy district in New Jersey, has implemented a policy of not assigning homework and not requiring extracurricular activities for one day, but this frequency is once a year. " In fact, parents in this area have taken the initiative to increase their children's schoolwork burden, and even many children themselves agree that most families in the whole area are doing so.

Those college students who have received elite education from famous schools don't care about the world after graduation.

A student of the author William Deresiewicz joined a consulting company after graduation. His salary is very high, but he always wants to leave this industry and "do something more innovative and meaningful." However, he doesn't know how to achieve his goal at the thought of giving up the superior lifestyle he has long been used to. " William Deresiewicz summed it up brilliantly: "He has become addicted to money". This kind of life lost the pursuit of freedom and self, and lived in the evaluation of the outside world.

However, this situation does not stay in the meaning of personal life, but harms society. Tony Hayward, former CEO of BP, died. After his company caused the biggest environmental disaster in human history, he cried in public and expressed the hope that his life would return to normal. His company has turned the whole Gulf of Mexico into a pool of sewage, but he really cares about only one person: himself. From this incident, we can see that "self" is the focus of the elite: they ignore the groups outside the elite and lack public morality and sense of responsibility.

For this phenomenon, Youyang also cited a case of President Obama: "He appointed timothy geithner as the Treasury Secretary and lawrence summers as the director of the White House National Economic Council, but these two men were hard to blame and dragged the United States into the financial crisis."

Here, we smell the taste of "officials protecting each other" of the elite. In this regard, William Deresiewicz pointed out directly: "Even the whole elite, including bankers, liberals and conservatives, upper-middle class and upper-class society, no matter how self-justified and self-touted the current system, is no longer feasible. Now we must imagine a different social form and summon up the courage to turn it into reality. "

Liberal arts education is the real education.

In the author's view, "liberal arts education" is the real education. Its primary responsibility is to teach humans to save themselves from common sense formed by misinformation. We should know it first, then question it, and finally think about it from a new angle, instead of being dragged away by the blindfolded wild horse of "common sense". One of the characteristics of liberal arts education is its breadth. Therefore, you may be mature and good at questioning because of your knowledge. More importantly, you have learned self-guidance, and achieved the goal of "educating people" in liberal arts education, which is also a way to solve the "excellent sheep" education in famous schools.

Perhaps, some people will think that liberal arts education will be at a disadvantage in the workplace, and the training period of students after graduation will be extended. There is another sentence in "Excellent Sheep": College students who receive liberal arts education are "like a duck to water" in the workplace, and their personal abilities will not be limited by majors.

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University education should guide students to establish themselves.

What is the original intention of university education? It is to educate young people to explore and innovate, rather than being trapped in their familiar fields. In order to ensure Excellence, they dare not cross the line and let their lives be trapped in a small circle. Unfortunately, those "excellent sheep" are excellent, but they can't break through the excellent "sheepfold" and refuse what they don't like. They were tamed and succumbed to external evaluation.

On the surface, "Youyang" seems to have unlimited scenery. In fact, the "elite ambivalence" caused by excellent grades and inner resistance is only a global phenomenon in the United States. If this problem cannot be dealt with in time, it will lead to a "winner's central crisis". In this regard, William R. Fitzmons, director of the Admissions Office of Harvard University, has an incisive comment: "When they were in their thirties and forties, they said that they were socially recognized as accomplished people, but in fact they were just a group of survivors who were at a loss in the concentration camp of lifelong competition. They have never lived in the present, and they have always wondered whether their efforts are worth it? " That is, they have not established an independent self.

The harm of elite education in China should not be underestimated.

The situation described in the book should be shared by many parents in China. China's current education is mainly "one exam for life". Therefore, not only the college entrance examination and senior high school entrance examination are highly competitive, but also primary schools and kindergartens. Who dares to spare no effort for their children to be admitted to famous universities in the future? We know that putting children in books is not conducive to the healthy development of body and mind, but what can we do? All parents and children are so forward-looking, and exams are already the fairest way to select.

However, this seemingly fair way of enrollment has begun to go out of shape, and it seems that "it is difficult to get a noble child from a poor family" has gradually become a conclusion, because the children of "rich families" are more qualified to invite famous teachers to teach privately, enjoy high-quality resources and enter high-quality schools. This gap between children can not be narrowed by children's personal efforts, but every parent and child must go all out to achieve the goal of high scores. As for the most important things such as the direction and choice of life, they have no time to take care of them.

Do a good job in self-construction.

In fact, "elite education" is only a part of the social elite management system. It is a privileged phenomenon, which concentrates most high-quality resources on elites and their children. This phenomenon is very common and difficult to change in a short time. What we can do is to know it as much as possible, not to be led by it like a wild horse, and to make some balance or other choices in it, so that our life will be more opinionated, less blindly followed, more enthusiastic and less paranoid.

William Deresiewicz mentioned the education of "second-rate public schools" in his book, and praised it greatly, saying that it is freer, more humane, with higher education quality, which has a more positive impact on life, and even helps you to "attack the city slightly" in your future life. Whether in education or in life, we are too obsessed with wealth and trapped in specific problems, but we ignore freedom and responsibility, tolerance and openness in life, lack inner peace and reflection, and cannot build our true self. Life has become a walking corpse dragged by the outside world.