HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In classrooms where the students can read for themselves, reading aloud often falls off the daily schedule. But it's a ritual well worth keeping—for the sake of literacy, the moral imagination, classroom bonds, and so much more. Long-time Heights teacher Tom Steenson encourages the teachers tending that flame, or wanting to rekindle it, in their own classrooms. Chapters: 2:08 Goals of reading aloud in the classroom 4:44 The artist sees, then helps others to see 11:47 Books that aren't landing 15:10 The read-aloud routine, scene-setting 18:35 Reading in a high school classroom 22:27 Separating instruction from narrative 24:59 The effect on teachers Links: Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Augustine's Confessions translated by F. J. Sheed Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm by Robert C. O'Brien The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Featured Opportunities: The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024) Also on the Forum: Classroom Ambience by Joseph Bissex The Read-Aloud Family featuring Sarah Mackenzie Stop Telling Your Son to Read: How to Inspire a Love of Reading featuring Tom Longao How to Master the Art of Reading Outside by Tom Longano

As we embark on a new school year, we are full of resolutions for the family routine. How will we order our week to support the highest goods? How will we fit it all in? Not to be overlooked while charting the course: our keeping of the Sabbath. Last April, author and teacher Daniel Fitzpatrick released his book Restoring the Lord's Day: How Reclaiming Sunday Can Revive Our Human Nature. Daniel sits down with us at HeightsCast to discuss the book, which examines the cultural drift away from a sense of Sabbath, why we should restore this God-given rhythm to our lives, and the scriptural support for how to do it. Chapters: 4:09 Inattention to the Sabbath: modern or ageless? 7:54 Acedia, primary vice against the Sabbath 12:32 Challenges of the five-day work week 17:24 Festivity and sacrifice 21:56 The draw of sports as they relate to beauty 24:30 The good, UNrestful activities of Sunday 31:09 Practical advice for young families 35:38 Preparing on Saturday 40:44 Concluding the Sabbath 43:22 Reckoning with the necessity of labor Links: Restoring the Lord's Day: How Reclaiming Sunday Can Revive Our Human Nature by Daniel Fitzpatrick Joie de Vivre: A Journal of Art, Culture, and Letters for South Louisiana edited by Daniel Fitzpatrick Grace Fitzpatrick Art, Byzantine iconography by Grace Fitzpatrick Featured Opportunities: The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024) Also on the Forum: Work and Acedia: On Our Original Vocation featuring R. J. Snell Leisure and Acedia: On Contemplative Homes in a Frenetic Age featuring R. J. Snell

"Picture yourself here." "Become all you can be." "This will be the best four years of your life." The college pitch to high school seniors is alluring—though it doesn't sketch a very clear life plan for a young person entering higher education. As Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente points out, a successful time in college can be measured in growth: Are you physically, spiritually, and intellectually stronger by the end of these four years? In order to answer yes, students will need to embark upon college with a plan and a healthy way of measuring those dimensions of growth. This week on HeightsCast, Mr. de Vicente shares incredibly practical advice for spending the college years well, drawing on a letter he sent this summer to the newly graduated Heights class of 2024. Chapters: 1:45 The best four years of your life? 6:44 Old truths remain fresh 9:17 College success measured by growth 12:05 Five battlefronts, five tools for success 12:36 One: Shower and eat breakfast 15:30 Two: Look at your day as a 9-to-5 job 19:26 Mr. de Vicente's study plan 25:32 Three: Find the right peer group 30:04 Four: Chart a path for spiritual growth 32:00 Five: Have a mentor 35:27 A reasonable study load, being effective without overloading 41:26 Laptop distractions in class 44:25 Breaking out of the "self-focused" college attitude 50:40 A truer pursuit of happiness Featured Opportunities: The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024) Also on the Forum: Considerations for College-Bound Students featuring Dr. Peter Kilpatrick of The Catholic University of America The College Experience featuring Dr. Jonathan Sanford of University of Dallas Rethinking College: Why Go? How? When? featuring Arthur Brooks

Charlotte Mason's simple framework for a teacher calls him a "guide, philosopher, and friend." It's a lovely image—but what does that practical application look like? At the Forum Teaching Vocation Conference last winter, Heights teacher Tom Cox unpacked each of these terms citing ancient wisdom and loads of modern classroom experience. Chapters: 6:09 Charlotte Mason and the teacher as guide, philosopher, and friend 7:44 Guide: one who has been there before 10:53 Communicating the "why" 14:18 Philosopher: starting in wonder, ending in wisdom 15:59 A storyteller stirring up wonder 20:01 Friend: beginning with a mutual love of something 22:28 Modeling friendship with fellow faculty 23:57 St. Aelred of Rievaulx's qualities of friendship 24:19 Dilectio, outward benevolent acts 24:54 Affectio, interior feeling 26:29 Securitas, freedom from anxiety 27:42 Iucunditas, pleasantness 30:00 Orient towards hope: begin and begin again Links: Grammaticus.co, Tom Cox's website featuring Latin and history courses, his blog, and podcast The Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx Featured Opportunities: The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024) Also on the Forum: Living the Teaching Vocation by Michael Moynihan Teaching and the Vocation to Fatherhood featuring Tom Steenson On Preparation for Teaching: Six Attributes of Great Teachers featuring Colin Gleason The Teacher as Liberal Artist featuring Tom Longano

In his address to the Forum's Mentoring Workshop held in June, our Head of Lower School Colin Gleason helpfully reframed just what mentoring is—and what it can't be. Though images of the sculptor, the director, and the master often accompany this rough term of "formation," Mr. Gleason reminds us that we are really more akin to gardeners, who attend to a living creation with its own freedom and will. So, how can we appreciate this situation and best work with it for the good of our mentees? Chapters: 1:29 Neither the model nor the molder 3:39 We cannot 'do' the formation 5:56 Freedom to choose the good 10:19 "Thou mayest" (not thou shalt) "triumph over sin" 15:54 Exercising freedom requires formation 16:49 Manners: what the act looks like 18:57 Reasons: the intention behind the act 21:38 Images: how a person chooses the act 23:36 A mentor as such an image 25:49 Loving the good 29:51 Loving the person References: He Knows Not How: Growing in Freedom by Julio Diéguez East of Eden by John Steinbeck Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf by Ben Hogan InSideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives by Joe Ehrmann Also on the Forum: Seeing Our Boys with Loving Eyes: Not Projects but Persons featuring Tom Royals Why Boys Need Mentors featuring Joe Cardenas and Alex Berthé

In June, the Forum hosted a Mentoring Workshop for men across the country (and beyond) to consider the whys and hows of mentoring young boys into young men into men fully alive. It's always best to start by defining terms. And so, the opening lecture for the workshop weekend featured Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti, theology scholar and upper school teacher at The Heights School, explicating the kind of Christian anthropology that precedes a mentoring relationship. In other words, how are we to understand what man is before we try to help him grow? For our benefit, Dr. Lanzilotti maps out this profound philosophical concept using St. Augustine's simple and most famous line: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you." Chapters: 2:07 St. Augustine's "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you" 4:56 What is man? Who is man? What is his telos? 7:54 Pope St. John Paul II's "adequate anthropology" 8:38 Finding an adequate anthropology in St. Augustine's restless heart 10:05 Fecisti nos: you made us 13:33 Ad te: for yourself 17:27 Inquietum cor nostrum: our hearts are restless 22:19 Donec requiescat in te: until they rest in you Links: Confessions by St. Augustine I Burned for Your Peace: Augustine's Confessions Unpacked by Peter Kreeft Gaudium et spes by the Second Vatican Council, promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Address to the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" from January 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis Also on the Forum: Starting a Mentoring Program by Joe Cardenas and Nate Gadiano Mentoring without a Program: On Teaching the Whole Person featuring Joe Cardenas

Note from producer: This conversation was originally published on March 23, 2021, but has been updated and republished on June 13, 2024. As we look forward to the wide expanse of summer, one thing certainly on our minds is how we can support our sons' friendships in the absence of school. Turns out, we needn't look further than our own living rooms. In fact, welcoming our children's friends into our homes may be the healthiest place for authentic, lifelong friendship to grow. In a timely rebroadcast from 2021, Assistant Headmaster Tom Royals helps parents to see their homes as a venue for hospitality—one that integrates our children's social lives with the culture of the home. He especially highlights a vision for hosting teens, who often stray away from home-based gatherings just when it's most beneficial. Chapters 01:45 Begin Interview 02:28 Parents building a culture of home gatherings 06:50 Hosting high schoolers, knowing your home 11:24 Co-ed hosting 12:56 Spontaneous hosting 15:05 Parents working with parents 16:12 Crucial years: establishing this culture before they launch 18:14 Hospitality and the temperaments of your children 20:24 The example of Fr. Robert Kimball 25:28 The role of the father 29:01 Parental presence at teen gatherings: freedom and formation 33:07 Modeling friendship, hospitality Also on the Forum: Friendship and the 21st-Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente Family Culture featuring Alvaro de Vicente On Friendship after Senior Year featuring Dave Maxham

Where to begin with the lofty, almost nebulous virtue of magnanimity—what St. Thomas Aquinas called "stretching forth of the soul to great things"? Of course we want to raise great-souled children, who even outstrip us in their vision of the good and their commitment to serving it. But words alone will fail to impart such a personal and complex mission. At last April's Fatherhood Conference at The Heights, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente tackled the challenge of how to teach magnanimity to our children. Following Fr. Carter Griffin's keynote address, Mr. de Vicente laid out the map: the obstacles we must navigate, the targets of opportunity we must seize, and the tools to pack for the mission. Chapters 4:30 Defining magnanimity: a vision of and commitment to the good External challenges to teaching magnanimity: 6:37 Identity culture 7:43 Sexualized culture 9:09 The "second-hand smoke" of culture 10:20 Materialism and affluence 13:18 Entertainment culture 16:01 Moral relativism Internal challenges to teaching magnanimity: 19:23 Selfishness, "I deserve" 22:33 Anxiety 24:26 Personal weakness 26:26 Playing the wrong role: acting coach, not director Opportunities for teaching magnanimity: 28:08 Dealing with our own anxiety 31:32 Communicating with God and spouse about each child 33:42 Emotional presence at home 37:50 Expressing affection Ways to discuss magnanimity with your child: 40:00 Positive framework for "the talk" 40:52 Examples of virtue 44:36 Through sports 47:00 Dependable routines 47:50 Financial awareness 48:59 Forming a boy's intellect with conversation Your best resources: 51:38 Friendship with like-minded parents 52:14 Online resources, podcasts 52:52 Spiritual direction53:46 Hope in God's grace Also on the Forum: Magnanimity and the Great-Souled Man featuring Fr. Carter Griffin Featured Opportunities: Mentoring Workshop at The Heights School (June 13-14, 2024) The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024) Leaders Initiative now accepting applications

The modern instinct with free time is to fill it. Whether in our own lives or in the lives of our children, we imagine that something productive or mindless is the antidote to an uncommitted hour. Middle school teachers Kyle Blackmer and Shane O'Neill encourage us to think differently. This week on HeightsCast, the duo shares practical reasons and methods for protecting our family's free time, which helps to cultivate interests, relationships, and the wellbeing of the whole person. They speak especially to our role as parents, teachers, and coaches: to clear the way of obstacles and model our own good use of free time. Chapters: 3:27 Good free time 5:33 Role of parents in a child's freetime: not entertaining but spreading a feast 7:34 Sunday as the day of rest 10:03 Leisure not as a thing "to do" 12:17 The Sabbath and sports 17:10 Overscheduling as an obstacle 22:42 Wasting time vs. free time 25:57 Cultivating interests, fostering friendships 30:53 Consumerism as an obstacle 35:20 Why free time is ultimately valuable 42:06 Modeling healthy free time Links: Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper Also on the Forum: Leisure and Acedia: Contemplative Homes in a Frenetic Age featuring R. J. Snell A Summer Fully Alive by Nate Gadiano What Is the Difference between Free Time and Leisure? by Joseph Bissex Friendship for the 21st Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Today we talk to Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, President of The Catholic University of America, who offers our graduates advice about how to make the most of college. He shares his thoughts on civic discourse, selecting a major, affording college, and more. In addition, he roots the entire college experience in the bigger quest to know one's self; but is that possible in a dorm? Our guest today answers emphatically "yes" and makes suggestions about how to advance in this life-long quest. Finally, Dr. Kilpatrick emphasizes the importance of mentorship and human relationship in personal growth, urging students to seek out meaningful connections during their precious and limited undergraduate time. Chapters: 5:03 Costs of college 6:40 The real purpose of college 8:59 Knowing oneself: asking the ultimate questions 13:09 Pursuit of the professions as a path to knowing oneself 16:04 Financial big picture 22:18 Choosing majors and minors 28:54 Fruits of the spirit as a means of choosing a path of study 33:12 The use of full human reason 41:00 Fostering an integrated sense of reality while in college 44:10 Mentorship and human relationship in a world of AI and self-teaching 49:05 Freedom of speech and earnest inquiry on campus 57:20 Assuming leadership positions on campus 1:01:42 Making the most of residential life Links: Fruits of the Spirit, Works of the Flesh: homily from May 19, 2024 by Bishop Robert Barron General Audience from June 16, 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI Also on the Forum: The College Experience featuring University of Dallas President Dr. L. Sanford Rethinking College: Why go? How? When? featuring Arthur Brooks