HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

Our headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, offers a lecture on how to build a solid relationship of trust with your son. This relationship matters because it is the context within which you will form your boy's character.

Brad Soderberg, Assistant Coach for the UVA Men's Basketball Team, shares his thoughts on coaching and parenting character through athletics at a very high level.

Hear our Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, explain the mission and vision of The Heights.  For 50 years, we have partnered with parents to form "men fully alive" by tending to the intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual well-being of every boy.

Smart phones present unprecedented challenges to parents.  Consequently, we are encouraged to "wait until 8th."  Head of Heights Mentoring, Joe Cardenas, wonders whether we should hang in there just a little longer.     Have Smart Phones Destroyed a Generation,  Jean Twenge (TheAtlantic.com) https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/2017/09/has- the-smartphone-destroyed-a- generation/534198/ "...

In this episode, Mr. Kyle Blackmer explores the virtue of order and how we, as parents partnering with teachers, can share it with our middle school boys. It is entirely possible for a young man of 13 to appreciate an ordered life and an ordered mind. It is also possible to teach a young man lacking order to embrace a new virtue. Listen in to learn how.

Are manners stodgy vestiges of a bygone aristocratic age? At The Heights, we'd offer a resounding "no." Manners matter, and as parents and teachers, these "rules of civility" offer a great opportunity for teaching our boys virtue. Listen in to hear more.

Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offers advice to individuals interested in stepping to the front of the classroom. What sort of temperament best suits a teacher? What ought one to study in order to prepare? Listen in to learn more about what Heights Headmasters, from Bob Jackson to Alvaro de Vicente, have looked for in their faculty for 50 years.

Dr. Matt Mehan explores the relationship between practical and speculative wisdom in the liberal arts education. He explains that "an education in the liberal arts must give pride of place to practical wisdom, to navigating the realm of becoming, while resisting the temptation to focus on speculative or contemplative Wisdom, that final rest and joy of the heavenly realm of being."

Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, offers a Heights Lecture on integrity. He shares how honesty requires far more than merely telling the truth; our boys must learn to live the truth.

In today's episode of HeightsCast, Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente discusses hiring, the attributes of the teachers he hires, and where he finds them. A faculty is a School's most valuable resource. It is mission-essential to get hiring right; our headmaster discusses his approach here.

Newly installed University of Dallas President, Dr. Thomas Hibbs, discusses the challenges facing higher education in the liberal arts. How should parents approach the college decision? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of high school graduates today? Is college for everyone? Tune in to hear Dr. Hibbs discuss these questions.

Newly installed University of Dallas President, Dr. Thomas Hibbs, discusses the challenges facing higher education in the liberal arts.  These challenges are both financial and cultural, stemming not only from external threats, but arising also from a misunderstanding by universities themselves of the true nature of liberal studies.  Dr. Hibbs explores the ideas underlying the liberal arts educati...

In today's episode, Dr. Matt Mehan explores the virtue of patriotism. We forget that this is a virtue, especially in a digital age that unleashes and misdirects our lesser instincts. But gratitude is, in fact, due to our Founders and our Nation. How do we express this gratitude, and how, in light of that duty, do we handle the more difficult aspects of our nation's past?

In this episode, Mr. de Vicente: Discusses the three prerequisites for a healthy young-adult relationship: Good Intentions, Other-Centric Worldview, Self-Mastery. Discuses the three requisites for a healthy relationship: Rules, Communication, Accountability.

In this episode, Upper School Head, Michael Moynihan discusses how we as a School partner with fathers to help them share God's plan for marriage and human love with their sons. Each child has the right to a personal conversation with their parents about human love. To deal with this topic solely in an institutional way does not do it justice. The topic of human love is best addressed in the conte...

In Brief: Training in virtue requires attention not only to intellect and will, but to emotions as well. Complete virtue requires not only a knowledge of, and decision towards the good, but also the desire for that good. How do we instill in our boys this desire for the good? Example: The way we speak to, and speak about, others, is a key element of our children's emotional formation. We must show...

This week on HeightsCast, Dr. Lionel Yaceczko discusses the study of Latin as the best way to develop our students' "grindstone skills": the abilities to "think" and "communicate," which will allow them to both thrive in a constantly evolving job market, and to engage the greatest minds of their tradition.

This week on HeightsCast, Dr. Lionel Yaceczko discusses the study of Latin as the best way to develop our students' "grindstone skills": the abilities to "think" and "communicate," which will allow them to both thrive in a constantly evolving job market, and to engage the greatest minds of their tradition.

Every year, bishops around the country visit their flocks to offer the sacrament of Confirmation to young people. In this episode, Mr. Jeff Thompson shares how he, as a middle school religion teacher, teaches the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit to his middle school students, making them come alive in the hearts and souls of his boys.

In this episode, Head of Mentoring, Joe Cardenas, explains the importance of training the emotions of our aspiring "men fully alive." Often we see education as a matter of the head; but as teachers, we must be just as concerned with forming the heart. We base much of this interview on this article from  OpusDei.org .

Contemporary children's literature often celebrates children lying or worse to accomplish "good" ends. As parents of avid readers, we must be aware. Joe Breslin and Tom Cox take on perennial favorite, Harry Potter, which offers, as one of its many strengths, gripping portrayals of flawed heroes.

This week on Heightscast, an interview with Head of Upper School, Michael Moynihan, on his new book,  Decisive Parenting . For more information or to purchase Michael's book, click here .

Heights Teacher and Mentor, Alex Berthe, discusses the importance of proper praise in the moral development of boys. Our culture tends towards two extremes: we are either overly critical, or excessively flattering. Alex helps us walk the mean as we guide our sons to a solid confidence in our love for them, and in their rock solid understanding of their identity as sons of God.

As a community of believing parents and teachers, passing the Faith on to our sons' is mission essential. Heights Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, discusses how parents and teachers can model, explain, facilitate, and support the faith of our fathers in the next generation.

Join two Freshman Core teachers, Gerard Babendreier and Joe Cardenas, for a discussion about how high schoolers should approach their study. To simply call this homework is an unfortunate oversimplification.