Do people still put bumper stickers on their cars telling all the strangers following them about the honor student in their family? I haven’t seen one for awhile. I assumed the practice ended years ago when people who haven’t accomplished anything whined about being harmed by the mention of accomplishments.

There were a couple of honor students in my family and I managed to suppress the desire to put a bumper sticker on my car because I never HAD the desire. The people who need to know what’s happening in the Branyan clan don’t need to get updates from the back of my car. If you don’t know the names of my kids, I figure you don’t care about their grades.

That being said, it is far, far, far, better to tell the disinterested public about your child’s achievements than to pretend that mediocrity deserves recognition or honor. I’m truly ambivalent about your child’s averageness but I am astonished by your eagerness to proclaim it. Why do you want me to know your child is unremarkable? Your lack of self awareness is actually offensive.

If you truly believe it is enough for your child to know you’re proud of her, you don’t need the bumper sticker. If you want the rest of society to be proud of your kid, then your kid needs to accomplish something beyond mere existence. If this isn’t making sense to you, you’re probably not an honor student.

(Jeremiah 9:23) This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”