Give 'Em a Real Lesson in Humility

David Brooks will teach a course in humility to Yale students.

I'm not one to pick on Brooks--although his mind numbing swoon over Obama's pants crease still boggles my mind--despite his being liberals' favorite conservative. He may not be really conservative, but surely he is more conservative than the most conservative Democrat in Congress, and that really has to be enough if building a winning coalition is important to conservatives rather than enforcing ideological purity.

My real purpose for this post is to suggest a quick and easy way for Brooks to teach humility to those sons and daughters of privilege.

In this day of grade inflation, Brooks should open the class with two statements.

One, normal drop-add deadlines don't apply to this class. You are in this class and can't do anything about it.

And two, he should say that he has marked everyone in this class as getting an "F" for their final grade.

Then, after reading them a definition of 'humility' as "the quality or state of being humble; modest opinion of one's own importance or rank; meekness," he should announce that class is dismissed for the term.

How's that for a lesson in humility?