HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

What does it mean to be "civilized"? What is justice? What is a citizen? Given the opportunity, would you have killed Julius Caesar? Was Nero inevitable, or is it possible to keep one's wits while running such a powerful empire? These are a few of the questions that eighth graders at The Heights are challenged to ponder together in their core class. With the help of their teachers and a new history textbook, the boys not only consider these questions amongst themselves but do so in dialogue with some of the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition. This week on HeightsCast, we discuss Tom Cox and Bill Dardis's new book, Becoming Rome: Foundation, Republic, and Empire in the Words of Eminent Romans. In addition to sharing the story behind their writing, Tom and Bill introduce us to their method of teaching history at the primary and secondary school levels. Drawing on fourteen years of experience in the classroom as well as graduate studies in the liberal arts, Tom and Bill offer practical insights for teachers who hope not only to bring history to life in the classroom but also to prepare their students to bring those lessons into their own lives. Chapters 0:32 Introduction 2:00 A better approach to the history textbook 4:50 The big questions hidden in the narratives of history 7:00 The contemporary approach to history lessons 9:56 Receiving tradition and engaging it 11:00 Why study history at all? 15:50 A roadmap to history 19:15 Method of the book 24:23 Seminars and discussing difficult topics 28:15 Why write a book? 31:32 The book's target age level 32:45 The relationship between Christianity and the book Also on the Forum The Importance of Ugly History by Mark Grannis Keeping the Story in History by Mark Grannis Seeing History: On Using Images in the History Classroom by Kyle Blackmer Hillsdale's M. Spalding on the Importance of History Pt. I with Dr. Matt Spalding Hillsdale's M. Spalding on the Importance of History Pt. II with Dr. Matt Spalding Plutarch's Lives Teach: Character Education through Story with Tom Cox History the Way it Was…and the Way it Should Be by Bill Dardis Writing and Thought; Oratory and Ethics: What We Give Our Seventh Graders in the Core with Tom Cox

As teachers and parents, it is often difficult to find the balance between leniency and strictness, love and fear. Getting the right tone, being firm in principle and flexible in preference, is indeed an art and an especially difficult one. While nothing can replace personal experience for growing in this art, self-reflection is a great aid to this end. This week on HeightsCast, Mr. Colin Gleason, Head of the Lower School, offers an aid to our personal reflection. The episode features a presentation by Mr. Gleason from our recent Art of Teaching Conference. At that conference, he spoke to seventy men from across the United States and beyond about how we, as teachers, can foster an environment of respectful dominion in the classroom. Colin offers a list of twelve principles, together with a great many practical pointers and delightful anecdotes. In the end, the point of discipline is to foster the right tone for learning, the proper culture for growth. Whether this growth occurs in the home or in the classroom, having the right tone is ultimately about love. Rome, they say, was not loved because she was great; she was great because she was first loved. So too our sons and students. Chapters 2:25 Beginning with the end 3:50 A question of balance 6:35 Principle #1: Discipline begins before class begins 8:32 Principle #2: Best disciplinary tool is a good lesson plan 12:25 Principle #3: Fostering class culture is more effective than listing class rules 14:40 Principle #4: We earn capital outside to spend inside 17:05 Principle #5: Smiling isn't enough; we need to laugh 19:45 Principle #6: Let them love what they see and fear what they don't 24:45 Principle #7: Don't confuse personal preference with principles 25:40 Principle #8: Non-correction corrections 27:35 Principle #9: Replace star stickers with handshakes 29:15 Principle #10: Learners over lessons 31:25 Principle #11: Replace line-writing with push-ups 34:30 Principle #12: When you send students to the principal's office, your authority goes with them Also on the Forum Boys, Education, and The Heights with Alvaro de Vicente Raising Contemplative Sons: The Problem with Boys with Colin Gleason Our Little Protectors: How Do WE See Our Boys? with Alvaro de Vicente On Recess: The Benefits of Free Play with Colin Gleason Toughness for the Adolescent Boy by Kyle Blackmer Seeing Our Boys with Loving Eyes: Not Projects, but Persons with Tom Royals Why Boys Need to Be Given Freedom by Andy Reed Material Order and the Middle School Boy with Kyle Blackmer Can I Catch It?: On Handling Wildlife with Eric Heil *For lyrics and history of the Ave Regina Caelorum, please visit adoremus.org.

It's not merely where you are going, but how you get there, that matters. And as we often find ourselves going places in cars, it is worth stopping to consider how we spend our car rides. In this week's episode, we welcome back to the podcast Mr. Kyle Blackmer for a discussion of the daily commute. Whether we carpool or ride solo, Mr. Blackmer helps us to reframe how we approach this daily endeavor which can easily become, at best, dead time and, at worst, dreaded time. Kyle shows us how the car, with the right attitude and a little creativity, can become its own classroom. He encourages us to think about how we can best use this time by praying, engaging in good conversation—at times mere fun, at other times more formative–, listening to good music and books, and celebrating. Chapters 00:45 Introduction: reframing the daily commute 3:20 How can we make carpooling more fruitful for our sons? 5:43 The car as a classroom: the first and last period of the day 6:22 Four modes of teaching in the Car 6:45 Prayer, especially the Rosary, especially in the morning 9:28 Car as a place for friendship, shared life 10:55 Conversation in cars 16:20 The art of asking good questions and listening 17:15 Tuning into the boys in front of you 19:16 Setting guidelines for your carpool 21:10 Being intentional about what you listen to 25:35 Audiobooks and classic rock 27:50 Celebrating the in little ways 31:20 Finding moments for little points of correction 33:30 Advice for solo commuters 35:50 The last three minutes: preparing for your return home Recommended Audiobooks for the Road The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart Seabiscuit by Charles Rivers Editors Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Treasury for Children by James Herriot Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingallas Wilder The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Once and Future King by T.H. White The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells The Complete Father Brown Collection by G.K. Chesterton A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Also on the Forum On Home as Social Hub: The Importance of Hosting Our Sons and Their Friends with Tom Royals Friendship for Fathers: John Cuddeback on Living and Teaching the Art with John Cuddeback Sarah Mackenzi on the Read-Aloud Family with Sarah Mackenzi

In a recent national survey of adults in America, a striking sixty-one percent of young adults (age 18-25) reported feeling serious loneliness. Such feelings of loneliness were also accompanied by anxiety and depression. Although humans are by nature social animals, it would seem that forming deep friendships may not always come so naturally. How do we form friendships? How do we help our sons form friendships? What even is friendship? To help us answer these questions, we welcome to HeightsCast John Cuddeback, professor of philosophy at Christendom College and Life Craft writer and speaker. In this episode, Professor Cuddeback helps us understand what friendship is, how to practice the art of friendship, and how friendship goes hand-in-hand with happiness. As he explains, friendships do not merely happen. Rather, they require intentional cultivation and sustained effort. Indeed, like any art, the art of friendship requires discipline and practice. Specifically, Professor Cuddeback focuses our attention on how a husband can form a deep friendship with his wife and a few male friends, as well as how he can help his children to grow in their own friendships. Being a father first, he may one day become a friend of his adult children. As Professor Cuddeback explains, true friendship is the only way to overcome loneliness in life. And, in the end, it will be in sharing our lives with friends that we come to find the ultimate meaning of our lives. Chapters 1:25 What is friendship? 4:15 Different kinds of friendship 9:05 Friendship and human flourishing 11:05 Happiness today 14:00 The activities of friendship 19:40 The number of friends 24:40 Friendship for the twenty-first century father 28:00 Selecting friends 33:30 Friendship with your spouse 41:10 Friendship with other men 44:30 How to prioritize relationships 47:15 Parenting and friendship 50:47 How to coach our children in forming friendships 55:37 Advice and encouragement for single mothers Resources Life-Craft.org True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness by John Cuddeback Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx Treatise on Law by Thomas Aquinas Also on The Forum Cultivating Friendship in the Classroom by Austin Hatch On Friendship after Senior Year: Higher Stakes and Beautiful Opportunities with Dave Maxham Friendship for the 21st Century Boy with Alvaro de Vicente On Home as Social Hub: The Importance of Hosting Our Sons and Their Friends with Tom Royals

With another year having passed—perhaps even sped by—and a new one underfoot, HeightsCast returns with a discussion of time and solitude with Mike Ortiz and Rob Greving. Together, Mike and Rob invite us to slow down as they unpack their two recently published articles on the Forum. Mr. Ortiz dives into Henry David Thoreau's cabin life and the importance of intentional times of solitude in our lives, while Mr. Greving considers our often uneasy relationship with time and the good of slowing down, even as the world speeds up. As we look forward to the new year with hope and anticipation, let us not forget to slow down and, in Mr. Greving's words, listen for the present moment. After all, you can't read a poem in a hurry. And if you are always in a hurry, you might miss the poetry of life. Chapters 1:45 Background to the articles 5:43 Thoreau's way of solitude: the path to a greater appreciation of the world 10:15 Never less alone than when alone 13:30 Time alone and listening for God 15:55 Silence and the capacity to attend 20:55 Having more that is worth less 22:55 Handling time gently 30:08 Times of leisure in the life of a school 32:30 Beyond life hacks: cultivating a disposition 40:56 Poetry, solitude, and time 45:13 You can't read a poem in a hurry 48:02 Slowing down in family life 53:00 The importance of not over-scheduling kids 57:15 Conclusion and a closing poem Recommended Resources Walden by Henry David Thoreau The World of Silence by Max Picard Living in Liturgical Time by Terence Sweeney "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost "Mossbawn": Two Poems in Dedication by Seamus Heaney Also on The Forum Thoreau's Cabin Life: Why It's Not Anti-Social to Savor Solitude by Mike Ortiz Handling Time Gently by Rob Greving The Freedom to Form Bonds: Kevin Majeres on Mindfulness and Attention with Kevin Majeres Forming Deep Workers with Cal Newport What Is the Difference between Free Time and Leisure? by Joe Bissex

From the very start, the founders of The Heights understood education to consist in the communication of a culture. As culture often enters a boy's mind through his senses, an important means of this transmission is the art and architecture of a school. Indeed, in many ways buildings embody the ideals of an institution. This week Joe Cardenas, head of mentoring and long-time art history teacher, joins us for a conversation on the importance of beauty in education. Rooting the conversation in the American tradition, Joe helps us see why and how the art and architecture of schools is as important as the books in its curriculum. As we hear from Joe, the art on a school's walls become the images adorning a student's soul. If we want to help our boys be at home in their very selves, the art of schools is an indispensable means to this end. Chapters 1:25 An evening of art for parents at The Hawthorn School 4:40 Art and beauty in the American tradition 5:35 Washington's leadership at Valley Forge 7:23 Why does beauty matter? 9:00 The museum of our soul and the archive of our experiences 10:43 What is the role of beauty in a school building? 14:13 Pope Benedict XVI on Beauty 16:00 Cardinal Newman on Beauty 17:22 Beauty and the daily reality of boys 21:25 Beauty in business 24:00 Robert Jackson and the early years of The Heights 28:30 Churchill's speech on rebuilding the House of Commons Additional Resources Adoremus.org's explanation of the Four Seasonal Marian Anthems (includes history and translation) PDF of Music and Lyrics to Alma Redemtoris Mater from gregorian-chant-hymns.com Speech on the Rebuilding of the House of Commons by Winston Churchill Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty by Joseph Ratzinger A Catholic Eton? by Paul Shrimpton Also on the Forum School Tone, the Most Powerful Teacher with Alvaro de Vicente Building Little Houses: Why Random Art Projects Are Awesome by Joe Bissex Manners: The Art of Happiness by Robert Greving Why Our Politics Needs Poetry with Dr. Matthew Mehan Five Fruits of a Poetic Education by Nate Gadiano

In many schools, education is understood in reductively intellectual terms. The point of teaching, it would seem, is merely to inform, to fill the mind with data, to train the intellect to perform tasks and solve puzzles. To be sure, information and intellectual virtues are essential aspects of education; but they are not the whole, and to make them so would be to reduce the person to his mind. In this talk, taken from our recent Art of Teaching Conference, Anton Vorozhko helps us understand the role of the heart in the education of the whole human person. Starting with a reflection on the greatest of teachers, Christ—the one to whom all other teachers ought ultimately to point—Anton offers advice at once practical and personal. His talk centers on three areas, or apostolates, which he suggests teachers should consider: presence, correction, and prayer. In the end, considering these three apostolates will help teachers turn their daily work into what St. John Henry Newman called a cor ad cor loquitur—a heart speaking unto heart—making his task not only to inform the mind but equally to move the heart. Chapters 0:05 Other men are teaching! 1:00 Looking to the ultimate models: Our Lord and many of the saints 3:40 The dream of Don Bosco and the Preventive System 7:20 Conquer through love: seeing Christ in our classroom 10:03 Not a job, a vocation 11:24 Three apostolates of the teacher: presence, correction, prayer 11:40 Apostolate of presence 15:30 Apostolate of correction 17:48 Suggestions from Don Bosco 19:05 Apostolate of prayer 21:45 St. John Paul II as a university professor Additional Resources Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco: From St. John Bosco's Biographical Memoirs by St. John Bosco Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel Also on The Forum The Art of Teaching: On Forming Contemplative Souls with Rich Moss Developing Your Son's Will with Andy Reed The Freedom to Form Bonds: Kevin Majeres on Mindfulness and Attention with Dr. Kevin Majeres The Talk and Beyond with Michael Moynihan

In this episode, we feature a recorded lecture given by Rich Moss in his introductory presentation at the Art of Teaching conference hosted by The Heights Forum last week. In this talk, Rich explains why teaching is an art, what that art is, and what are the tools utilized by the teaching artist.

Boys love concrete details and, even more, they love when those concrete details form the fabric of a hero's tale. Indeed, as Aristotle himself knew, better than telling adolescents merely about virtue is giving them examples of heroes, for good men are not made in theory, but in practice and boys need to see virtues practiced to be inspired themselves. What better place to turn than an author who has taught generations of leaders, not least of which were our own country's founders. That man is Plutarch and our guide is Tom Cox, one of the architects of the eighth grade core humanities class and current upper school classics teacher. In this episode, Mr. Cox shows why and how we teach Plutarch to our boys. He explains why it is important to find the good even in heroes that are less than saints and helps us understand that education is more than something that merely happens; it requires a boy's freedom. Although heroes may not be saints, they are good starting points. It is perhaps not mere happenstance that Plutarch wrote his biographies as the Evangelists were writing their lives of life's Author. As the Greek philosopher was a master at portraying those little details which form a hero's character, it is the man from Nazareth who teaches us to turn them into heroic verse—and that is the beginning of holiness. Chapters 1:15 How did you find Plutarch? The eighth grade core A biographical approach to history 4:20 Why read Plutarch? A good storyteller An inspiration to Shakespeare 6:10 What does Plutarch tell us about being a good man? The peak of a mountain of tradition Seeing the goodness first: heroes and saints 13:10 What are some of the best lives to take a look at? Alcibiades Mark Antony Publius Cicero Cato the Younger 19:54 Connecting pieces of the curriculum with Plutarch Government and Literature 20:20 Gospels 22:35 On the formation of leaders 24:20 Connecting to the American leadership 28:10 Plutarch and the education of citizens 33:04 Where to start? Alexander the Great and Pompey Brutus and Caesar 36:09 How to teach Plutarch Difficulty of translations A little at a time 38:15 The Plutarch Podcast and Grammaticus.co Additional Resources The Plutarch Podcast Grammaticus.co Lives by Plutarch Also on The Forum Writing and Thought; Oratory and Ethics: What we Give Our 7th Graders in the Core with Tom Cox History the Way It Was… And the Way It Should Be by Mark Grannis Aristotle on the Student's Job by Tom Cox Seneca on the Teacher's Job by Tom Cox

This week on HeightsCast, we feature headmaster Alvaro de Vicente's open house speech on the mission and vision of The Heights School. In the speech, Alvaro helps parents discern the right school for their son. Understanding education to be essentially about partnering with parents to transmit a culture, he encourages parents to thoughtfully consider the culture of our school and how it relates to the culture of their own homes. In addition, Mr. de Vicente offers a few words on our vision of manhood, suggesting that to be a good man, one must also be quite dangerous: powerful enough to do damage, but with the moral character to do great things. Chapters 1:17 How to discern the right school for your son 1:45 Education as transmission of culture 2:46 Our vision 3:20 Dangerously good: what it means to be a man 6:15 Our goal 6:50 How to make this vision a reality 6:57 Partnership with parents 8:35 Growth in virtue 11:40 Model the culture and counsel your sons Additional Resources Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag by Armando Valladares The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Also on The Forum The Man Fully Alive with Alvaro de Vicente Self-Mastery: Alvaro de Vicente on Fostering Interior Freedom in Schools with Alvaro de Vicente Who Am I?: The Question of Persona with Alvaro de Vicente Our Little Protectors: How Do WE See Our Boys? with Alvaro de Vicente Forming Wise, Courageous Risk-Takers with Alvaro de Vicente