This Christmas season has prompted some reflection on the phenomenon of cars simultaneously bearing Christian fish symbols and bumper stickers proclaiming that a child has been elevated to honor student status at a particular school. Is such a bumper sticker truly consistent with Jesus’s teachings on humility? I couldn’t find good statistics on what percentage of public school students are on the honor roll, but this article reports 15 percent in one school district. Let’s say the average honor student is roughly at the 93rd percentile. As the Chinese population is 1.34 billion, if we assume that the distribution of intelligence and diligence is the same in the U.S. and in China, perhaps a more humble bumper sticker would read “My child is almost as smart and hard-working as 94 million people in China”.

Anyone else have a good idea for a humble bumper sticker?