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

This third part of the book focuses on how colleges are supposed to provide students with the kind of education Deresiewicz has been talking about. In short, he touts the importance of, “…deploying that most powerful of instructional technologies: a liberal arts education, centered on the humanities, conducted in small classrooms by dedicated teachers” (149). In these three chapters, he explains what that means.

First, Deresiewicz defines liberal arts as those subjects studied for their own value, not to a practical application. These include not only the humanities, but the hard sciences and social sciences as well. Employers value graduates who major in liberal arts because they want employees who can see things from different perspectives, make connections between disparate ideas and concepts, and have strong communication skills. The author calls these “soft skills” and argues these are more important than ever in today’s globalized world relying so much on innovation. However, the main purpose of liberal arts goes far beyond just a career.

In short, the humanities help people see the world as it really is, divorced from personal perspective filtering reality. Deresiewicz is not suggesting that everyone major in a discipline of the humanities, but that everyone be exposed to them.