The syllabus of the much talked about course entitled “Humility,” taught by New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks, features a humble surprise: assigned readings from Brooks’ own works. According to the syllabus, the course is a survey on a character-building tradition that emphasizes modesty and humility, examining figures from Moses and Augustine to Burke and Niebuhr. Perhaps the course is an examination of the failure of humility, or maybe Brooks himself is on par with Moses and is just being ironic. Either way, he will be faced with an interesting challenge justifying this not-so-humble addendum in his lecture.