''My son is a good kid. He's quite a remarkable, wonderful young man," the mother said to me on your first day here.

''I'll be the judge of that," I thought to myself.

Yet she is probably right. After all, he got in Duke. And our Office of Admissions makes certain that no slouch gets in Southgate. 1300 on your SAT, 198 of you were number one in your high school class. God I thank thee that I don't have to teach at a school where the students are only average!

And of course, one reason why your above average children come to a place like Duke is that we have an above average faculty. Out APT Committee makes certain that no intellectual sluggards get loose in a Duke classroom. God I thank thee that my list of publications is long, my degrees earned, not like a faculty member at some commu…