Shows / HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
Welcome to HeightsCast, the podcast of The Heights School. With over 200 episodes, HeightsCast discusses the education of young men fully alive in the liberal arts tradition. The program engages teachers and thought-leaders in the educational/cultural space to support our community of listeners: parents, teachers, and school leaders seeking to educate the young men in their care. Instead of downloads, HeightsCast's most important metric for success is the unknown number of thoughtful…
Episodes
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveJoseph Bissex on Teaching with Body Language: How Movement Shapes Learning
Posture and facial expression are the most instant methods of communication. And we come to know something better when we can act it out in the real world…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMichael Moynihan & Mark Grannis on Rising to the Challenge: Resolutions of an AI Task Force
Last December, our headmaster assembled a team of faculty to consider the challenges of AI in education. After six months of reviewing the research, reflecting…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AlivePat Love & Shane O'Neill on Making Room for Mistakes: Education as Imitation, Mistakes, and Improv
This age of AI puts a spotlight on the differentiated power of "thinking well." But the best way to teach students to think well is counterintuitive: we have…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Men for the World: On Every Man's Vocation
Admittedly, today's world is far from the Garden where the world began. If we think of our vocations as "recovering the Garden," we may wonder whether it is…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveKyle Blackmer on Heights Clans and the Need for Festival
This fall marks the 25th anniversary of the institution of the Heights Clans. These competitive bodies engage in festivity six days a year, including two full…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on the Scope of Mentoring
At The Heights, every teacher functions as a mentor for students. This is more than a figure of speech; it's the character of certain student-teacher…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDavid Maxham on Struggling in Math: Where Digital Tools Can Assist in Academic Virtue
There's a sea of online math supplements, from drills to games to whole courses, all promising advancement for your struggling student (or your stellar student…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Jonathan Buttaci on the Art and Act of Knowing—and What That Means for Teaching
How do we know whether we know something? How do we know whether our son or student has apprehended a lesson? Sometimes we hear the liberal arts discussed as a…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Paul Shrimpton on Newman and his Idea of a School
The most famous work of our newest Doctor of the Church is, of course, The Idea of a University—a collection that explores the essence of a Catholic university…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Boy-Girl Socializing: Fostering Healthy Peer Groups
Statistics show that young people today are spending significantly less time socializing in face-to-face mixed company, across genders, than previous…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAustin Hatch and Tom Steenson on True Convivium: Friendship with Fellow Teachers
"Friendship is one of the most indispensable requirements of life," says Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics. But, adds Alasdair MacInytre, it's also…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMichael Moynihan on Reducing Anxiety through the Meaning of Work
In the charged "Achievement Culture" we live in today, both parent and student anxiety have skyrocketed. There are the usual culprits, from a changing economic…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveEric Heil on an Introduction to Natural History: Beauty, Science, and Philosophy for Boys
Natural History is a largely outdoor, discovery-based class for our lower school students, where they see the Valley as a textbook and the seasons as its…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Joseph Lanzilotti on Theology and Masculinity: Men's Creation and Calling
Our headmaster often uses this paradigm for the ideal Heights graduate: he's the kind of young man you'd want your daughter to marry. In a recent article for…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMark Grannis on Knowing How to Know: Law School and Other Professional Discernments
How many of us wondered at some point in our lives: "Should I go to law school?" It's a common question as one approaches college graduation. Students find…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Crafting and Sharing a School Vision
This year's Heights Forum Art of Teaching Boys Conference brought together motivated educators from across the country (and beyond) to discuss a new vision for…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Matthew Mehan on Compiling an American Book of Fables
"Something old, something new, something red white and blue." The American Book of Fables is Dr. Matthew Mehan and artist John Folley's latest children's…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMark Ryland on Pragmatic Hope: Understanding AI and the New Economy
As a top cybersecurity expert in the commercial sector, Mark Ryland has spent nearly a decade following the development of AI systems—their possibilities…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAndrew Cantarutti on The Walled Garden: Critical Considerations for Classroom AI
AI tech has come knocking at the classroom door, and schools across the country are rushing to design their AI policies around information that seems to change…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveClare Morell on A Humane Way of Life: The Research Behind Home Tech Decisions
A rapid rollout of integrated AI into technology we use everyday brings with it new considerations for our tech policies at home. At this year's Heights…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveRobert Greving on an Apostolate of Courtesy: Social Graces and Civilization
Saving civilization well may begin with eye contact, a tucked shirt, a sincere apology, or a held door. For the dispositions we have toward the little things…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Matthew Spalding on Teaching the American Founding after 250 Years
How have we allowed such a daring story as the American founding to become so flat? A history lesson so simple, tidy, and inevitable that it can be covered in…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveColin Gleason on "Tell me the truth!" Leading Boys to Integrity
Why tell the truth when it doesn't always pay? It's important to let boys encounter this question through example, literature, and enough freedom to wrestle…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDave Maxham on Automaticity: Where 'Rote' Fits into the Liberal Arts
Could creativity and intellectual freedom actually depend on the rote? Following up on his recent article for the Forum, math teacher Dave Maxham dives into…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAndrew Reed on Parenting through the Middle School Doldrums
What do our children need most from us in the unsteady years of middle school? First, says Head of Middle School Andy Reed, they need our availability. But…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAndrew Cantarutti on Classroom Habits of Attention in the Age of AI
Today, we have an increasing store of research to evaluate the claims of educational tech. Where does it assist or upend our goals as a school? Where does it…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveTom Steenson on the Teacher's Voice
Volume, pitch, pace, tone, inflection: the human voice is our primary teaching instrument. The spoken word has not just a logos and an ethos but an embodied…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on the Role of Parents in the Conspiracy for the Good
When we join a school community, it should be to join forces with teachers, administrators, and other families in the "conspiracy for the good" of our…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Stephen Smith on Educating Leaders with Thomas More
Does a talented person have a duty to serve others? What do leading citizens really need to live well, freely, impactfully—even greatly? How do we, parents and…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveBill Dardis on Teaching Religion with Multiple Faiths in the Room
"Charity and clarity" are the lodestars when teaching middle school boys with various faith backgrounds—and who are developing faith dispositions of their own…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveArthur Brooks on Your Calling and How to Find It
The crisis of meaning among young people gets a lot of press; but a quieter crisis of calling afflicts every generation today. Dr. Arthur Brooks says the…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveKevin Twomey on Frantic Families: Three Questions for a More Intentional Life
Kevin Twomey is a husband, father, and a principal consultant at Table Group, founded by Patrick Lencioni, which specializes in helping executive teams build a…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveColin Gleason on the Father as Protector
The first images of a "protector" that flash through our minds might be the warrior, the superhero, the movie star physically holding back evil from invading…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveTom Cox on an Epic Education: Tolkien in the Middle School
To prepare for Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, the Eddas, and Dante—The Heights begins with Tolkien. In a talk from 2016, former middle school core teacher and current…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMichael Moynihan on the Father as a Guide to the World
From utero and into infancy, babies recognize their mother as being essentially one with them. So, being placed in their father's arms is in fact their first…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveFr. Thomas Joseph White on Reading into Reality: What Is Intellectual Formation?
Our mission is to assist parents in the intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual formation of their sons… At The Heights, we repeat these words often…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveFr. Carter Griffin and Alvaro de Vicente on Vocational Discernment in an Age of Infinite Options
"Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 16:25). This week we're joined by Fr. Carter…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveColin Gleason on Manners: The "ABCs" of Virtue
Please, thank you, after you… Do manners matter? Are they artifice or virtue? In this rebroadcast from 2019, lower school head Colin Gleason shares how manners…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDan Lively on Formation for the Body: Lifelong Functional Fitness
In our school communities, we talk a great deal about moral and intellectual formation. But physical development, too, has an essential place in the…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Jason Baxter on Why Beauty Matters: The Postmodern Pressure on Our Interior Life
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveTom Cox on Being a Faculty of Friends: Making Schools into Communities
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Melissa Moschella on Parental Rights in Natural and Constitutional Law
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMichael Moynihan on A Whole Education: Teaching Persons, Not Just Subjects
There should be no contradiction in pursuing hard sciences, humanities, and moral virtue all in one day. For upper schoolers switching classrooms every hour…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Parental Expectations: Being Both Perfect and Anxious for Nothing
"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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Conversation: The Medium of Mentoring
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveKyle Blackmer on Building Parent-Teacher Rapport
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveFr. John Nepil on Theology at Elevation
"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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAndrew Reed on Developing Your Son's Will
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…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveMichael Moynihan and Austin Hatch on Teaching the History of our Strange New World
To help our seniors synthesize the many ideas, events, and texts they've surveyed across high school—and to help them better understand their own cultural…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Matthew Mehan on Imagination: The Raw Material for Thinking
Properly understood, the imagination is not something you escape to; it's something you draw upon every day to make decisions, understand events, and…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveColin Gleason on Discipline: Giving Room for Good Things
"… the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild." G. K. Chesterton…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveChris Vander Woude on Ordinary and Heroic Virtue
In 2008, Tom Vander Woude died saving the life of his youngest son. But this radical self-gift was really the culmination of a quiet life of daily virtue with…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Enjoying Our Children and Why It's Important
They know we love them; but do our children sense that we like them? And how does that relate to their formation? In the intense season of togetherness that is…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Joseph Lazilotti on the Sex Difference in Education
Months ago, Heights teacher Joe Lanzilotti took up a prodigious project: reviewing the body of popular literature on boys' education. Partway through his…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveClare Morell on the Tech Exit: How Smartphones Undermine Our Parenting—and How to Reverse Course
The ever-changing tech landscape and the ever-growing research on interactive screens means that the topic must come up anew year after year. For parents…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveDr. Matthew Tapie and Dr. Lionel Yaceczko on Parental Authority and Thomas Aquinas
In 1858, six-year-old Edgardo Mortara is forcibly removed from his family's home in accordance with civil and canon law. His Jewish family's legal appeal…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveChristopher Scalia on Finding Your Next Novel
In a world competing for our attention, our guest this week admits: "It's probably harder to read novels now than it ever was." But their value cannot be…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveJoe Cardenas on A Change of Soul: Reimagining the Purpose of Vacation
As we conclude the school year, parents are turning their sights to summer and the much-anticipated family vacation. We bear such hope for rest and connection…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveAlvaro de Vicente on Choosing a College—Or Not
As more families scrutinize their post-high school options for virtue and value, the field has perhaps never been wider. Choosing a path carefully, with the…
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully AliveFr. Gregory Pine on Human Reason: An Attentiveness to Reality
Human reason: what is it? How does it cooperate with faith and the will? How can we distinguish between authentic reason and its counterfeits—particularly in…