HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In our school communities, we talk a great deal about moral and intellectual formation. But physical development, too, has an essential place in the whole-person, long-term vision of what our sons and students can become. Heights Athletic Director Dan Lively reminds us that the goals of athletic training don't begin and end with high school sports. In fact, lifelong functional fitness is in service to every vocation. It ensures that we and our sons are capable of having a positive impact—on the world and in our families—for as many years as we're on this earth. Chapters: 3:22 A long-term vision for your son's physical development 10:41 The goal: robust longevity 14:34 Health: more than avoiding disease 21:05 Mark Baker on functional fitness 24:14 Fitness increases one's potential for self-gift 25:58 Role of the school 31:51 Role of the family 40:09 Parents can play too 45:39 The thrill of middle school gains 47:32 Embrace your inner gym bro 52:01 The reluctant athlete Links: GuruAnaerobic, Mark Baker eBooks Also on the Forum: Athlete or Academic: What's the Real Priority in Schools? on the Forum Faculty Podcast Movement as Foundation of Fitness featuring Dan Lively Character Formation in Elite Athletics featuring college coach Brad Soderberg Featured Opportunities: Mustard Seed Communities, donations for Jamaica hurricane relief The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

One philosopher of our time claims that "today, the experience of beauty is impossible." Dr. Jason Baxter, director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College, begs to differ. Dr. Baxter joins us on HeightsCast to unpack his latest book, Why Literature Still Matters, which looks at why such a claim might feel true in our digital age. Then, he talks us through why and how we should reclaim our experiences of beauty for the health of our soul. Chapters: 00:03:34 The experience of beauty 00:08:44 Byung-Chul Han: the possibility of beauty today 00:15:41 Marc Auge: still living in the Enlightenment experiment 00:20:46 The soul is not a machine 00:24:57 Our task as parents, educators 00:35:05 Likes and emojis: the simplification of our interior life 00:49:23 A near-death experience in Sardinia 00:56:24 Beauty and mental health 00:57:40 Franny and Zooey: interiority matters 01:03:41 Recommended reading Links: Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter Help! Where do I go from here? Part I: Poetry by Jason Baxter Beauty Matters, Substack for Jason Baxter jasonmbaxter.com featuring articles and lectures Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity by Marc Auge The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich A Letter to Our Daughter by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan "A Prayer for My Daughter" by W. B. Yeats Recommended reading: "Burnt Norton" from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger "A Hill" by Anthony Hecht "Advice to a Prophet" by Richard Wilbur The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy Middlemarch by George Eliot Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Also on the Forum: Breathing Narnian Air: Loving Modernity as a Medievalist featuring Dr. Jason Baxter Receiving Beauty: A Liberal Arts Education featuring Dr. George Harne Order and Surprise: On Beauty and the Western Tradition featuring Dr. Lionel Yaceczko Featured Opportunities: Mustard Seed Communities The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

The joy of "being known here" is not just for the students. When a faculty cultivates friendship, it benefits the entire school community. Tom Cox has been a middle and upper school Latin and Greek teacher at The Heights since 2009. Tom also hosts The Forum Faculty Podcast, now in its second year, which gives a slice of teacher breakroom culture: the kinds of conversations, rapport, and friendship that are born of our shared work and life as teachers. Tom joins us today to talk about how important faculty friendship is to making a school into a community, and what schools can do to support the planned and unplanned interactions that feed friendship. Chapters: 1:53 Tom Cox's history at The Heights 6:35 School as a community of friends 10:15 Using school trips for faculty bonding 14:58 Regional schools: community or society 17:01 Creating community over large distances 26:53 Building up faculty friendship 36:04 Friendship requires shared life, work 38:57 Facilitating that shared life 47:09 Planned and unplanned interactions 50:49 Real communities pass on a culture 57:26 The fruit of staying in one place Links: "A Faculty of Friends" from Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst Township, Pennsylvania Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis Man and the State by Jacques Maritain The World-Ending Fire Collection by Wendell Berry True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness by John Cuddeback "Charles" by Shirley Jackson "The Work of Local Culture" in What Are People For? by Wendell Berry Also on the Forum: The Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox Friendship and the 21st-Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente Friendship for Fathers featuring John Cuddeback On Friendship after Senior Year featuring David Maxham Featured Opportunities: Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

What are parental rights? Are they a legal stance—or a philosophical one? In today's conversation, Dr. Melissa Moschella of the University of Notre Dame discusses the profound and practical implications of the parent-child relationship. She then explores how those conclusions operate in the American legal tradition, tracing from natural law to John Locke to historic court cases and the public discourse today. Chapters: 3:46 True rights imply true duties 10:04 Natural law: knowable through reason 15:00 The rights and duties of parents 22:32 Role of the state in the American tradition 28:44 Twentieth-century shift, John Rawls 37:29 Whether schools can be value-neutral 43:34 Parental rights in American courts 46:47 Beyond religious liberty 55:00 School choice as parental choice 1:00:57 Public discourse: how to talk to friends, family, neighbors 1:05:30 Her book on natural law Links: Melissa Moschella, Ph.D., McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education, and Children's Autonomy by Melissa Moschella Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law: Principles for Human Flourishing by Melissa Moschella Democratic Education by Amy Guttman (argued against by Dr. Moschella) Brief of Amica Curiae in Support of Petitioners by Melissa Moschella "Nonreligious Parents Have Rights Too," WSJ op-ed by Melissa Moschella Also on the Forum: The Mortara Case: Parental Authority and Thomas Aquinas featuring Dr. Matthew Tapie and Dr. Lionel Yaceczko Parents as Primary Educators by Michael Moynihan Featured Opportunities: Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

There should be no contradiction in pursuing hard sciences, humanities, and moral virtue all in one day. For upper schoolers switching classrooms every hour, or for teachers siloed in a single subject, it can be easy to mistake "education" for a series of distinct academic categories. In this rebroadcast from 2015, Upper School Head Michael Moynihan gives us a better framework. He urges us to look at how our school's different departments present a unified and infinitively connective worldview—one that invites inquisitive engagement and exercises the full scope of human reason. Chapters: 4:39 The strength of "entertainment culture" 8:16 Successful families 9:28 Assessing the educational landscape 11:32 Fragmented school subjects 14:20 Teaching persons, not subjects 17:18 Appreciating the full scope of human reason Links: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (see chapter 8, "The Romance of Orthodoxy") By the Communion of Persons Man Becomes the Image of God by Pope St. John Paul II The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers The Idea of a University by St. John Henry Newman Regensburg Address by Pope Benedict XVI Laudato Si by Pope Francis Also on the Forum: The Art of Teaching Sovereign Knowers by Michael Moynihan Featured Opportunities: Fall Open House at The Heights School (October 18, 2025) Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

"Be perfect" (Matt. 5:48) and "anxious for nothing" (Phil 4:6). This tall order from the New Testament may put modern parents into a cold sweat. Parental perfectionism and anxiety are surely on the rise, but in his annual Headmaster's Lecture at The Heights School, Alvaro de Vicente talks us down. He shows us the compatibility and wisdom of these two Biblical encouragements by refocusing on the process of growth—moral, academic, athletic, and spiritual—over simply the apparent results. Chapters: 2:41 Introduction: being "good enough" 8:15 A new way to see perfection 10:07 Context changes our expectations 17:34 Setting reasonable expectations 24:46 Acknowledging our son's freedom 29:28 Parental anxiety: danger ÷ opportunity 36:54 Surrounded by goodness, a twitch upon the thread 40:53 Perseverance through hard times 47:42 Addressing real problems 53:15 Ultimately, in God's hands Links: Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente's Substack Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Minority Report (2002) The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton Peace Like a River by Leif Enger Also on the Forum: Failure Is a Great Tutor—Don't Fire Him by Alvaro de Vicente Having Better Mentoring Conversations by Alvaro de Vicente Featured Opportunities: Fall Open House at The Heights School (October 18, 2025) Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

The art of mentoring is not just for teachers and coaches, but also parents—who can never really be out of mentoring mode. In a recent Substack article, Alvaro de Vicente named five pitfalls for our attempts at mentoring young men. This week, he talks us through some of the takeaways, reminding us that mentoring is not a profound lecture but an ongoing conversation, and the goal is not to modify but to form. Chapters: 3:49 What mentoring is 4:35 Conversation as the basis 8:55 Parents: always in mentor mode 10:13 Presence over "meaningful content" 16:01 Weighty conversations 18:25 Daily conversations 21:24 Love unlocks a child 30:48 Urgent conversations 33:34 When to mandate 35:36 When to end the conversation 37:33 Formation is a game of inches Links: Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente's Substack Five Conversational Temptations Mentors and Parents Commonly Face by Alvaro de Vicente Peace Like a River by Leif Enger Only the Lover Sings by Josef Pieper Also on the Forum: Having Better Mentoring Conversations by Alvaro de Vicente Forming Others: What Mentoring Can and Can't Be featuring Colin Gleason Anthropological Foundations of Mentoring featuring Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti Mentoring without a Program: Joe Cardenas on Teaching the Whole Person featuring Joe Cardenas Featured Opportunities: Fall Open House at The Heights School (October 18, 2025) Headmaster's Lecture on Freedom in the Home at The Heights School (October 4, 2025) Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) link coming soon Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

In the broader society, mistrust increasingly defines the parent-teacher relationship. But it doesn't have to be this way. As a Heights parent and seventh grade core teacher, Kyle Blackmer shares a practical vision for sound parent-teacher relationships. It begins with understanding parents and teachers in their true, cooperative roles for a child's good. And it ends with developing real friendship between parents and teachers as they pursue this good together. Chapters: 1:29 Decline of the parent-teacher relationship 4:51 Parents' true role as primary educators 10:18 How teachers relate to parents 13:40 How parents relate to teachers 18:28 Shared understanding of the goal 20:52 School as a community 26:39 Building parent-teacher relationships Links: We Need to Talk About Parent-School Relationships by Daniel Buck Also on the Forum: Partnering with Parents: Some Implications for Parents as Primary Educators by Michael Moynihan Communicating with Parents by Kyle Blackmer The Role of Parents in the Conspiracy for the Good featuring Alvaro de Vicente Order and Surprise: Lionel Yaceczko on Beauty and the Western Tradition featuring Lionel Yaceczko Humility and Teaching: On Leading While Walking Backward by Joseph Bissex Parents as Primary Educators by Michael Moynihan Featured Opportunities: Headmaster's Lecture on Freedom in the Home at The Heights School (October 4, 2025) Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025) link coming soon Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

"One of the best places to cultivate a Catholic worldview in the hearts and minds of young people … is in the backcountry," writes Fr. John Nepil in his recent release, To Heights and unto Depths. Fr. Nepil, who has led dozens of group treks through the mountains of Colorado and said Mass atop every fourteener in the state, joins us to talk about adventure and a young man's theological education. The backcountry, he says, is rich in lessons of creation, dependence, suffering, and beauty—restoring our sense of being created and loved by a self-giving God. Chapters: 5:18 What draws us to the mountains 9:04 "Nature" vs. "creation" 13:16 Fatherhood 16:00 Dependence 20:44 Cultivating a worldview 25:54 Guiding the conversation (or not) 28:13 Redemptive suffering 31:23 Starting with beauty 38:59 Physical vs. metaphysical limits 46:46 Men doing hard things together 48:29 The backstory of the book 50:39 A habit of reading Links: To Heights and unto Depths by Fr. John Nepil Rethinking Mary in the New Testament by Edward "Ted" Sri Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church's Marian Belief by Joseph Ratzinger Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton Also on the Forum: Why We Go: Seven Benefits of the Backcountry by Elias Naegele The Way of Encounter by Joe Breslin Why We Need Exposure to Nature by Eric Heil Featured Opportunities: Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

How many times a day do I tell my son what to do next? In this rebroadcast from 2015, our Head of Middle School Andrew Reed offers his ideas on cultivating an environment at home (and in the classroom) where boys can develop their own academic will. This entails not only greater freedom but also—just as necessary—a close and reliable family bond. Mr. Reed explains how this counterintuitive pair works together to teach a boy to choose the good for himself. Chapters: 6:32 The will: a marker for success 9:02 Overmanaging: telling them what to do 10:54 Boys grow from experience and challenge 12:33 The indifferent boy 14:43 Prompt the will with a question 17:31 Create an environment of freedom 20:16 But keep a close family bond 22:33 Manage the influences 24:21 A parenting examination of conscience 27:10 Patience and optimism 29:00 The will, freedom, and good academic habits Links: Developing Academic Habits: A Guide for Parents by Andrew Reed The Key to Success? Grit, a TED Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth, May 2013 (transcript here) Also on the Forum: Academic Habits and a Student's Developing Will by Andrew Reed Featured Opportunities: Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)