<p>[forgive me if this story has already been posted]</p>
<p>The e-wires are abuzz with this development, especially the controversy of Brooks teaching this class with his own writings. But first, here are the back-drop references.</p>
<p>First, from the Yale online catalog
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<p>Announced at Yale:[Brooks</a> to bring the Humility - The Yale Herald](<a href=“yaleherald.com”>yaleherald.com)
<p>I say, what the heck, beyond the irony, this world could use a little more humility (perhaps a lot more), and I see it as a great topic to engage.</p>
<p>If you look at the syllabus, you’ll see the reading is predominantly works written by others, with just a few short pieces by Brooks included–very common in college classes.</p>
<p>It’s also not uncommon for Yale to have classes like this. I don’t see the big deal.</p>
<p>Son at p’ton had some really funky titled classes, was hilarious seeing them inputted into his AMCAS (med school) application and THEN having to explain them at his med school interviews.</p>
<p>Not a big deal, just some fun. Hundreds of people will try to take the class. I agree, it’s a good idea for a college seminar, and Brooks seems to have put real thought into it.</p>
<p>And who came up with the idea that it was infra dig. for a professor to assign his own articles? That would sure be news to me!</p>
<p>I don’t see the controversy at all. David Brooks is a thoughtful, engaging person and what’s the big deal about a professor assigning some of his own works? Sounds interesting to me.</p>
<p>I agree in not getting the big controversy here…that Rolling Stone article hits the pretentiousness theme pretty hard…but as I said, what the heck. Must be good news-fodder to talk about a NYT celebrity.</p>
Wouldn’t it? I’d love to hear the lectures. Besides, as Papa Chicken points out, humility is in short supply - it wouldn’t hurt most of us to appreciate it more.</p>
<p>In engineering we occasionally had professors who wrote the textbook for the course. The extremely expensive textbook. Generally, unless the professor was a horrible teacher, it was considered a good thing to actually take a class from the person who wrote the book. Hence the aphorism “So and so wrote the book on …”</p>
<p>Not that David Brooks strikes me as particularly humble, but I wouldn’t peg him as the most qualified to teach the “Arrogance” course either.</p>
<p>As Stephen Colbert said when discussing his (faux) rivalry with Korean pop singer Rain - who has a slogan that includes the words “Endless modesty” … “I am INFINITELY more modest than you!”</p>
<p>Or Weird Al’s rapping “Well, I know I’m a million times as humble as thou art. I’m the pious guy the little Amlettes wanna be like On my knees day and night scoring points for the afterlife.” in “Amish Paradise”. </p>
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<p>Had a few HS teachers who tried that. One danger of holding such classes is the strong possibility of students turning it back onto the teachers…especially if said teachers are mainly motivated by the types of egotism common in mindless authoritarian martinets.</p>