HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In this week's episode, Mr. Michael Moynihan discusses freedom in education. Michael traces the development of our philosophical understanding of freedom through the centuries, starting with the Greeks and moving into the modern age. Next he presents the Christian ideal of freedom as a resolution and expansion of these conflicting understandings, along with some implications of this new freedom for our work in the classroom.

This week's episode features Mr. Alexander Havard, an internationally recognized authority on leadership and virtue. Mr. Havard gives us, as parents and teachers, a beautiful introduction to the virtue of magnanimity. In addition, Mr. Havard helps us understand the critical role of the human heart in the process of first embracing and then living a life of virtue. A good education shapes not only intellect and will, but heart as well. Listen in to hear why that is the case, and how we can go about offering a great education to the great souls entrusted to us. Links: AlexHavard.com Books: Free Hearts: Understanding Your Deepest Motivations Created for Greatness: The Power of Magnanimity And more...

Parenting in the digital age is a daunting task, especially when it comes to protecting boys from online dangers like pornography and social media manipulation. Chris McKenna offers practical strategies for parents, emphasizing the importance of open communication, vigilance, and setting protective measures in place. The podcast delves into the effects of social media platforms on teenagers, the challenges of navigating online content, and the need for parents to actively monitor and guide their children through the digital landscape.

For many people today, avoiding existential despair is like shoveling water from a damaged ship: the effort, no matter how valiant, is ultimately futile. Stuck in an immanent frame, a frame which lacks any real transcendence, one is left without a substantial source for hope. The above remains true, though in different ways, even for believing and practicing Christians. As children of our current culture, that culture shapes even our faith. This week on HeightsCast, we welcome back Dr. R. J. Snell, the Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute and the editor-in-chief of Public Discourse. In the episode, Dr. Snell discusses his recently published book, Lost in the Chaos, in which he offers an examination of the theological virtue of hope and an application of that virtue to our current times. More than an optimistic personality trait, more than a virtue that looks forward to a time in which all shall be made right, and more than a nostalgia that pines for a past in which all is thought to have been right, R. J. encourages us to see hope as a supernatural gift whereby we trust now in the agency of God even while evil perdures around us. Chapters 2:55 What is hope? 7:30 The "in the end" attitude 11:00 Job and hope in the darkness 14:00 The metaphysics of despair 18:55 Safety-ism 21:55 Despair as the desire to disappear 24:30 How immanence affects even the believer 26:46 Temptations of believers and non-believers 31:40 The twin dangers of utopianism and fundamentalism 36:35 The small teams and the little flocks 42:20 The importance of loving people as they are 44:15 Re-evaluating our approach to reason and our capacity to see reality 50:50 Expanding reason 54:35 Feelings as hooks into reality 1:01:00 Towards a more human way of seeing 1:02:00 Take-aways 1:05:05 A parting blessing Also on the Forum Work and Acedia: On Our Original Vocation with R. J. Snell Leisure and Acedia: On Contemplative Homes in a Frenetic Age with R. J. Snell

This week we feature a lecture offered by Head of Upper School, Michael Moynihan, at the most recent Teaching Vocation Conference. In his presentation, Michael encourages us as teachers to engage our students as free and rational agents, even when they don't want to be engaged as such. Michael offers us some helpful insights into the principles that should guide our teaching, as we lead our students to becoming seekers of truth, rather than consumers of information produced by others.

Many of us assume that college will inevitably follow on high school's heels, but why? Why go to college, and, once there, how do we make the most of the "college experience?" University of Dallas' President, Dr. Jonathan Sanford, shares his thoughts on these questions and offers guidance as to how this experience should be different at a Catholic liberal arts university. Our approach to friendship, study, and reality is shaped by our university years. But so too are our university years shaped by our expectations heading into it. Higher ed is a place where most of us can find whatever it is we are looking for. Dr. Sanford's conversation calibrates our students to make sure they are looking for the right things.

Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente discusses the importance of "imperfect parenting.' Ours is an age of external perfection, but when our son's fail to achieve the standards we set for them, our own anxiety can be the chief obstacle to our boys' thriving. Emotional presence in an imperfect parent facilitates a child's thriving by subsuming him into that of his mother and father. Hear our headmaster explain the importance of "quantity time," and the internal emotional disposition that can make this time a win, even if imperfectly.

While most professions work on an object which is ultimately transient—a doctor, for example, works to heal the body which will ultimately die, an engineer to design a bridge which will deteriorate over time, an entrepreneur to start a business that will likely persist at most a handful of generations—the object of a teacher's work is a human person, whose ultimate destiny is eternity. His work reverberates not only in this life, but echoes into the life to come. In this way, the work of a teacher is a natural extension of the work of parents, who cooperate with the Creator in not only welcoming souls into their own homes, but in stewarding them back to their heavenly Father's eternal homeland. Indeed, the work of a teacher is essentially an extension of the work of parents, who are the first and primary educators of their children. To explore the ways the vocation of fatherhood harmonizes with the vocation of teaching, this week on HeightsCast we share a lecture given by Tom Steenson at our recent Teaching Vocation Conference. In his talk, Tom discusses the ways that being a teacher helps one to be a better father, as well as the ways being a father helps one become a better teacher.

Dr. Scott Crider of the University of Dallas introduces us to Rhetoric, an art of persuasion that allows our future leaders to lead souls (and themselves) to the good. Dr. Crider discusses the nature of rhetoric, its place in the tradition of liberal learning, its role in a technologically advanced society (and classroom), and how it can be practiced by our students, not only later in life but now, in the context of the academic essay.

In a HeightsCast episode released in September, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offered guidance for parents on how to understand, interpret, and respond to their sons' grades while also nurturing strong and lasting bonds. This week we welcome Tom Steenson to HeightsCast to discuss grading from the teacher's perspective. Tom offers practical advice to teachers, framing grades as a means to helping students learn, whether they are relatively strong in a subject or struggling through a class. Approaching grading more as an art than a strict science, Mr. Steenson encourages teachers to be realistic without crushing a student and to challenge students to think beyond the grade, helping them find a real joy in learning. Chapters 2:10 Introduction: Grading from a teacher's perspective 3:00 How to think about grades 5:05 Dealing with a strong student 7:45 Should you grade different students differently? 10:53 The grade-monger: Kids who are hyper focused on the grade 14:20 Online gradebooks? 16:20 Practical advice for students struggling with grades 20:00 Grading fairly without crushing the student 21:45 Advice for the art of grading 28:10 Closing thoughts Mentioned in the episode Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck