HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

This week we feature a lecture by Fr. Carter Griffin, rector of the Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., to Heights Fathers on magnanimity.  This virtue calls us to stretch forth towards greatness, but with humility; to have an unshakable confidence in the victory of good over evil, but to walk slowly; to know ourselves to be loved by an all powerful father, but to be unmoved by either...

In this week's episode, Mr. Michael Moynihan discusses freedom in education. Michael traces the development of our philosophical understanding of freedom through the centuries, starting with the Greeks and moving into the modern age. Next he presents the Christian ideal of freedom as a resolution and expansion of these conflicting understandings, along with some implications of this new freedom fo...

This week's episode features Mr. Alexander Havard , an internationally recognized authority on leadership and virtue. Mr.  Havard gives us, as parents and teachers, a beautiful introduction to the virtue of magnanimity. In addition, Mr. Havard helps us understand the critical role of the human heart in the process of first embracing and then living a life of virtue. A good education shapes not onl...

This week's episode features Chris McKenna, founder and CEO of Protect Young Eyes (ProtectYoungEyes.com), who discusses the challenges and opportunities of raising sons in a digital age. Our guest has been on the frontlines of the current battle to protect children from digital exploitation, both criminal and corporate. As we form sons into men of freedom, it is grossly negligent to lack awareness...

For many people today, avoiding existential despair is like shoveling water from a damaged ship: the effort, no matter how valiant, is ultimately futile. Stuck in an immanent frame, a frame which lacks any real transcendence, one is left without a substantial source for hope. The above remains true, though in different ways, even for believing and practicing Christians. As children of our current...

This week we feature a lecture offered by Head of Upper School, Michael Moynihan, at the most recent  Teaching Vocation Conference . In his presentation, Michael encourages us as teachers to engage our students as free and rational agents, even when they don't want to be engaged as such. Michael offers us some helpful insights into the principles that should guide our teaching, as we lead our stud...

Many of us assume that college will inevitably follow on high school's heels, but why? Why go to college, and, once there, how do we make the most of the "college experience?" University of Dallas' President, Dr. Jonathan Sanford, shares his thoughts on these questions and offers guidance as to how this experience should be different at a Catholic liberal arts university. Our approach to friendshi...

Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente discusses the importance of "imperfect parenting.'  Ours is an age of external perfection, but when our son's fail to achieve the standards we set for them, our own anxiety can be the chief obstacle to our boys' thriving.  Emotional presence in an imperfect parent facilitates a child's thriving by subsuming him into that of his mother and father.  Hear our headmaster e...

While most professions work on an object which is ultimately transient—a doctor, for example, works to heal the body which will ultimately die, an engineer to design a bridge which will deteriorate over time, an entrepreneur to start a business that will likely persist at most a handful of generations—the object of a teacher's work is a human person, whose ultimate destiny is eternity. His work re...

Dr. Scott Crider of the University of Dallas introduces us to Rhetoric, an art of persuasion that allows our future leaders to lead souls (and themselves) to the good. Dr. Crider discusses the nature of rhetoric, its place in the tradition of liberal learning, its role in a technologically advanced society (and classroom), and how it can be practiced by our students,  not only later in life but no...

In a HeightsCast episode released in September, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offered guidance for parents on how to understand, interpret, and respond to their sons' grades while also nurturing strong and lasting bonds. This week we welcome Tom Steenson to HeightsCast to discuss grading from the teacher's perspective. Tom offers practical advice to teachers, framing grades as a means to helping st...

The book of Genesis tells us that God made man ut operaretur—that he may work. Far from a punishment for the Fall, work is an essential part of man's original vocation. Indeed, it is precisely as a craftsman—a tektōn, in the Greek—who does his work well (cf. Mark 6:3) that Jesus was identified in the Gospels. Education, therefore, even a liberal arts education, ought to take into account this impo...

"I'm a big believer in boredom…. All the [technology] stuff is wonderful, but having nothing to do can be wonderful, too." Thought-provoking words from the man whose company produces one of the most powerful tools for distracting ourselves from any feelings of boredom. Not only Steve Jobs, but seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, too, understood the dangers of perpetual entertainm...

"Man He made to serve Him wittily," said Thomas More in Robert Bolt's  A Man for All Seasons , "in the tangle of his mind." To serve God wittily requires an orderly mind, one capable of parsing through truths and falsehoods, able to string together arguments. Thus, the trivium endures: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.  To discuss teaching logic to high school students, we welcome to the podcast Mark...

This episode of HeightsCast features our Headmaster's Open House presentation, in which he shares our vision of education, along with the specific mission and concrete approach this vision animates.  As you will hear, the Heights is informed by the timeless, yet vigorously engaged with the present, sinking its roots as a school and community into the soil of the 21st century.  The Heights educatio...

The real problem for many today is not ADD; it is, rather, what Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente refers to as IDD: intimacy deficit disorder. This problem is even worse for men, who on average have fewer close friends. Studies indicate that the percentage of males who report having at least six close friends has been cut in half since the 1990s. There is, it would seem, a recession in male friendships...

Man is by nature made for movement. As a social-rational animal, he is not meant to live an angelic existence; his flourishing is embodied and, even more, it is familial.  Though we all know this intuitively, living a healthy life can be difficult in practice. Not only does personal experience tell us this, data suggests it: life expectancy in America is dropping. How is such a downward trend poss...

According to Aristotle (and Aquinas and others), the human person is essentially rational and social; man thinks, and he thinks best in the context of friendship. As such, at the very heart of man's education ought to be learning to write effectively, for good writing is thought clarified and beautified which can be shared with others. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, however, seem...

In a culture where autonomy is often pursued as an ideal, it's not surprising to learn that America is also experiencing a so-called loneliness epidemic . Together with loneliness, depression is also on the rise—a correlation that makes sense, given man's nature as a social animal. What is the solution to these problems? While there is perhaps no panacea, there is a particularly important starting...

Be careful that in encouraging a grade, you don't shortchange growth; for a grade ought to be a means to growth, helping students—and their parents—see where they are so they can know where to go. Ideally, grades are the beginning of a conversation about what lies underneath the surface: the "why" beneath the "what".  In today's episode, Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente guides us through a nua...

"The mind," Plutarch wrote, "is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting." The teacher's job, then, is not so much transferring data about the world from his mind to the students, but leading them to fall in love with the world that they see as good. The same is true for preparing teachers: what is needed is to light a fire.  There is no better man to light such a fire for the...

"It's the little details that are vital," said Coach John Wooden. "Little things make big things happen." Among the little details of school, which at times may feel more mundane than meaningful, is the dress code.  To discuss the why behind our dress code, we welcome to the podcast Assistant Headmaster Tom Royals. As parents and teachers, we work together to help our boys look sharp: buttons butt...

What, you might ask, does cheese have to do with education? The answer is not that you may find holes in both, but rather that both require attention to the local culture to be made whole.  This week on HeightsCast, Mr. Tom Steenson shares his thoughts on the tone and culture of the classroom. Leaning on nearly twenty-five years of teaching experience, Tom encourages us as teachers to see our clas...

Upper School Head Michael Moynihan encourages teachers to view their students as sovereign knowers called to exercise agency in their learning. As teachers, we lead by walking backwards, but our students should provide the forward momentum. Yet this momentum must itself be fostered by a proper approach to the art of teaching. Mr. Moynihan shares ideas here about how teachers can create an environm...

In this episode, Heights Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente elaborates on his vision for our Heights Graduates as "Men Fully Alive."  This vocation is a life-long pursuit.  The closer we get, the farther we realize we have to travel.  And yet, the calling to full and authentic manhood brings peace once embraced.  This peace results from knowing who we are, thinking big, and realizing that we can pursue...