HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive The Heights School

This week on HeightsCast we feature Tom Cox, Upper School Latin teacher and one of the architects of the Core Humanities Sequence. In the Episode, Tom explains what epic poetry is, where it fits into our curriculum, and why we teach it. Weaving together themes from Homer, Virgil, and Dante, Mr. Cox shows us how these epic poems shape the boys' moral imaginations at a time when they are first beginning to ask life's perennial questions: What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of my life? Can I be a hero? If so, what is my quest? By way of epic poetry, as Tom explains, the boys can begin to see that some of the most epic of all journeys may be hidden in the most ordinary, quotidien activities of life. 

"Have a great summer!" We hear it and say it incessantly, but what are we actually wishing for our boys? 21st Century America gives boys 3 months off--that is one quarter of the year and an enormous amount of time. Join Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, for a discussion of three ways that boys can fill their summer with healthy leisure and positive growth.

To learn more about the Summer Workshops, click here.
Dr. Matthew Mehan unpacks the liberal arts. We can throw the term around to describe our school, but do we really understand what we mean? Is it more than a list of good books? Dr. Mehan explores what it means to be a student of the “arts of liberty”–a life long pursuit.  For all of us.
Show Notes TheGuardian.com, Our Minds can be Hijacked St. Basil the Great, Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature De Doctrina Christiana Seneca’s Letter 88 Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri Sirach 6:18

Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, discusses paternal patience and anger in this week's episode. If you, like so many dads, find yourself regretting the fact that you "lost it," listen in.  Mr. Gleason discusses anger and the ways that we, as fathers, can direct this emotion towards the good.
 

At the heart of teaching is the desire to make an impact on the lives of one’s students. Beyond conveying useful information or training them in resume-building skills, great teachers wish to help their students live well—to be fully alive. Such a task, difficult as it may be, is what mentoring is all about. 
Yet most schools may not have a formal mentoring program. In these circumstances, how can teachers, who wish to help their students in ways that go beyond math or language arts, mentor students? 
To help us answer this question, we welcome back to HeightsCast our Head of Mentoring, Joe Cardenas, for a discussion on how teachers can mentor in schools without a formal mentoring program. In the episode, Joe explains what mentoring is and why it matters, offering guidance on how to be intentional, humble, and patient as teachers seek to help students not only see the good to be done but come to want to do the good they have seen.
Register for Joe’s Mentoring Workshop here. 
For lyrics, translation, and history of Regina Caeli, please visit: https://adoremus.org/2007/09/singing-the-four-seasonal-marian-anthems/
Chapters
0:35 Introduction  2:27 What is mentoring? 4:25 Who can be a mentor?  7:40 Getting started 11:26 Being intentional  12:15 Being humble  13:55 Respecting the agency of mentees   15:40 Vale la pena: it is worth it 17:40 Advice for conversations with mentees 22:00 An example of mentoring 23:50 Encouraging without increasing anxiety  28:20 Parents as mentors 30:15 Mentoring: important, though rarely urgent  Also on the Forum 
Foundations for Mentoring Struggling Students: On Fighting the Right Fires with David Maxham
Mentoring Sons to a Successful Summer with Joe Cardenas
Finding Mentors After Graduation: On Find Your Six with Pat Kilner
On Addressing Character Defects: Thoughts on Tough Love with Joe Cardenas
Why Boys Need Mentors with Joe Cardenas and Alex Berthe

“Education,” wrote G. K. Chesterton, “is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” If Chesterton is right, then education is about transmitting a culture, for what is culture if not the embodiment of a society’s soul? And what “soul” can be passed on from one human to another if it is not first embodied? 
To discuss the importance of culture both to society generally and education specifically, we welcome to HeightsCast George Weigel, a distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a New York Times bestselling author. In the episode, Mr. Weigel speaks about Pope St. John Paul II’s “culture first” approach. Contrasting the late pope’s view with Marx’s view of economics as the primary driver of history and the Jacobin view of politics in the driver seat, Weigel explains the historical and philosophical roots of John Paul II’s view of culture as the driving force in history. 
Along the way, he discusses what culture is and what education has to do with it. 
Recommended Resources 
Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel
John Paul II and the Priority of Culture by George Weigel 
Also on the Forum 
Family Culture with Alvaro de Vicente
Creating a Culture of Learning in the Home by Alvaro de Vicente