HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that he has "become all things to all people," so that he might better share the blessings of the Good News with more people. To become such a man who can be for all seasons, however, one must have been educated for all seasons. A preparation of this sort is precisely what the Liberal Arts, rooted in the Western Tradition, afford those who wish...

In the opening paragraph of his Confessions , St. Augustine writes, "our hearts are restless until they rest in You."  For many, the first half of this famous line is a well-known feeling; it is, in many ways, "the feeling of actual life," to put it in Hemingway's own terms. Indeed, there lives deep down a desire in all of our hearts for some mysterious reality — a green light across the bay — whi...

Growing up is, at least in part, a process of learning to ask, and learning to answer, certain fundamental questions. These include timeless queries such as "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" Our sons, in particular, might ask themselves, "What does it mean to be a man?" and "What is the point of my life right now, given that I'm not a man yet?" Our boys' attempts to answer these questions, along wi...

As parents, we cannot help but yearn for our child's success.  Obviously this is rooted in a beautiful and healthy love.  But sometimes that love can give way to fear, and that fear leads to anxieties that are unhealthy, not only for us, but for our children as well.  What can we do about this?  How can we care deeply about our children, without worrying so much that our worrying actually begins t...

In this week's episode, we sit down with Mr. Michael Moynihan to discuss his new book, The Talk and Beyond .  In the book, Michael shows parents how they can best communicate to their children God's plan for human love.  The book offers insights on how parents can comprehensively form their children to embrace the beauty of marriage.   In this episode, we speak with Michael about:  The significanc...

On this week's episode, we discuss technology with Mr. John Beatty, IT director at The Heights School.  While in past episodes we have spoken about smartphones, social media, and other forms of digital technology, in this episode we turn our attention particularly to the use of the internet on desktop computers.   As always, our aim is not merely to put up walls and make rules, but rather to help...

We have often heard it said that parents are the primary educators of their children.  Among others, we find the seeds of this idea in Cicero , for whom nature herself has instilled a "strangely tender love" for one's children.  It is likewise hinted at in Aquinas , who referred to the parental care of young children as a sort of "spiritual womb".  More to the point, just over half a century ago T...

It is not on bread alone that man lives, but also on every word that he receives. And just as one's diet shapes his bodily growth, so too does one's verbal digest contribute to his interior development. Of course, not every sort of bodily growth is good; and, likewise, not every slogan that one receives is in itself spiritually salutary. In this week's episode, Mr. Kyle Blackmer considers the ways...

This week on HeightsCast, we bring to you a lecture from the 2022 Teaching Vocation Conference.  In this lecture, Head of Lower School, Mr. Colin Gleason, offers advice on how to prepare for the teaching profession.  Although the ultimate preparation for teaching is teaching itself, he nevertheless offers us six verbs—actions—that great teachers do well and that aspiring teachers would do well to...

A teacher is one who leads while walking backward. Even more, he is one who leads with the humble hope that he will one day be surpassed by those who are following him; for while a teacher may have traveled down the proverbial path a time or two before, he must nevertheless rediscover it with each new student. In this week's episode we sit down with Mr. Joe Bissex to discuss the importance of humi...

While we often speak of the virtues we wish to see in our children, it is perhaps less common that we reflect on the particular virtues that we need to foster in ourselves. In this episode Mr. Tom Royals, 40+ year teaching veteran and Assistant Headmaster of The Heights, discusses the importance of parental prudence and its progeny: meekness, patience, and humility. In this week's episode, we sit...

Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente helps us examine our own perception, a parents and teachers, of our boys. If we view them as budding protectors, we'll treat them one way; if we see them as future "compliers," it will be another. But what happens when we want to see them as protectors but treat them as compliers subconsciously? Alvaro helps parents and teachers form a vision of boys befitting their na...

In the first talk of the 2022 Teaching Vocation Conference, Rich Moss describes some of the joys and travails of teaching, as he seeks to answer the question, "why teach?" In short, because we are called to it, because we love reality, because we love teaching, and because we love our students.

This week, we sit down with Dr. Lionel Yaceczko to discuss his new book on the fourth century Roman grammarian, Ausonius of Bordeaux.  In looking at his life, we dive deeper into various aspects of classical education.  As Ausonius lived through an important period of religious, political, and cultural change, considering his life also affords us the opportunity to think about how the advent of Ch...

Continuing with the theme of mentoring, this week Mr. David Maxham discusses how we, as parents and teachers, can better mentor struggling students by taking a step back and focusing on the basics. He offers three practical guideposts for these wonderful guys to strive for as they take steps toward becoming the man they were made to be. We remain, as always, optimistic. After establishing a relati...

What's your approach to discipline? This week we feature a lecture delivered at The Heights by Mr. Colin Gleason, Lower School Head offering his thoughts on this question. He can't answer for us as parents, but he can share his own philosophy as a teacher and school head. Regardless of whether you are thinking classroom or kitchen, Mr. Gleason encourages us to foster a culture of respectful domini...

In this week's episode, we sit down with Pat Kilner, a graduate of The Heights, former Heights teacher, Heights dad, and now Chairman of the Board of Directors to discuss his new book, Find Your Six: Stop Lead Generating and Start Building Influence . Whether you are in college or high school, a young professional or a seasoned veteran, this week's conversation centers on something that is crucial...

In this episode of HeightsCast, we feature the speech delivered by Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, to attendants of The Heights School's 2021 Fall Open House.

This week on HeightsCast, we feature a recording of the first Heights Lecture event of the new school year, featuring Alvaro de Vicente: What is optimism? Is it naive to be optimistic? How is optimism related to hope? How, in the end, do we raise sons who can look life's challenges squarely in the face with the the hint of a smile on their lips, knowing that all is in good hands? Join our Headmast...

Bad news is all around us. It always has been. It always will be. As if personal and family challenges weren't enough, we have an attention economy that seems dead set on giving a generation of young people chronic anxiety about seemingly cataclysmic events. How can we prepare our children to handle bad news? Quite simply, by handling it well ourselves, remaining saintly and cool under fire. How d...

In this week's episode, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente helps us develop a philosophy of technology. Building off previous conversations on The Forum with Cal Newport , Mr. de Vicente takes a deep dive into the topic of smartphones. In particular, he helps us answer the following questions: How can parents discern if a smartphone would be beneficial for their son?  When is the right time to entrust h...

Like a tree, whose roots are firmly planted in the ground and whose branches reach toward the sky above, education at The Heights is at once traditional and forward looking. While drawing liberally from the western canon and "the best that has been thought and said," to borrow Matthew Arnold's phrase, a Heights education is nevertheless at home in the modern world.  Neither the buried archives of...

In certain school systems, it is perhaps more common to find students dissecting samples and diagraming abstractions. The boys in the Lower School at The Heights, however, begin their scientific formation not in a lab, among dead specimens, but in nature, among living creatures. Their text book is not full of paper, but of paper's source, trees; for their primary text is the book of nature itself....

Ray Bradbury once remarked that, to destroy a culture, burning books is not necessary; all that is needed is to convince people to stop reading them. And, of course, the easiest way to sway people from reading is to keep them illiterate. Indeed, this is also the best way to rob them of their liberty.  Frederick Doublas once remarked that "once you learn to read you will forever be free."  Now, it...

Dr. Matt Mehan introduces us to The Handsome Little Cygnet, a delightful book about a Cygnet growing up in the heart of the big apple. Our fluffy hero introduces his human counterparts to concepts of nature, mercy, and regaining the way after it's been lost. Parents, too, can see here an example of patience and optimism while guiding our cygnets towards flourishing, naturally. The Handsome Little...