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 and personal quality—which comes with enormous advantages.

This week, twenty-five-year Heights veteran Tom Steenson shares a valuable reflection on the human voice and how we use it in the classroom. He includes many practical examples of how to engage students, express expectations, correct without disruption, and love your students by using your voice with intention.

3:11 The humanity of voice

5:14 The science of volume and pitch

6:56 Your reading and teaching voice

9:04 Speech as love, not punishment

10:46 Voice for humor and engagement

13:54 All the advantages of spoken word

16:25 A unique, live meeting of minds

20:26 Control without yelling

27:05 Enjoying your students

30:17 Song and poetry in the classroom

33:04 The value of the voice in-person

Teaching the History of Our "Strange New World": The History of Western Thought Course featuring Austin Hatch and Michael Moynihan

The Ritual of Reading in the Classroom featuring Tom Steenson

Classroom Ambience by Joseph Bissex

Classroom Tone and Culture featuring Tom Steenson

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026) – waitlist

Teaching Essentials Workshop at The Heights School (June 22-26, 2026)

Convivium Conference for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 2026) – link coming soon

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 children. In this multi-engine partnership, how do parents best play their role as the stewards of their child's whole-person formation?

In this rebroadcast from 2022, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente covers the idea of wise, willing, and informed partnership with your children's school; what it really means to the "primary educators"; how a school can be compatible with that philosophy; and the importance of parent friendships.

2:56 Entering a school partnership wisely 6:50 Entering the partnership fully 11:57 Parents' task: formation of the whole person 14:06 Ask what the teachers see 15:18 Match school culture with home culture 17:23 Your child's friendships 20:44 Parent friendships 26:39 Parent-teacher collaboration 32:04 When to pick up the phone, and the "conspiracy for good"

Building Parent-Teacher Rapport featuring Kyle Blackmer

On Home as Social Hub: The Importance of Hosting Our Sons and Their Friends featuring Tom Royals

Family Culture featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Creating a Culture of Learning in the Home by Alvaro de Vicente

Parents as Primary Educators by Michael Moynihan

Ways to Foster a Family Culture by Alvaro de Vicente

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 educators, order the educational goods?

"When I think of Thomas More's life, writings, and example, I think: here are the materials we need to answer those questions."

So says Dr. Stephen Smith, professor at Hillsdale College and co-director for the Center for Thomas More Studies. St. Thomas More not only provided a robust theory of education and duty in his writings, but also a praxis of that education by his heroic actions at the Tower of London in 1535. Dr. Smith joins us this week to discuss how More's life and education can be a pattern for our one-day leading citizens.

Chapters:

2:32 The living image of a great man

8:49 More's philosophy of learning

12:50 Virtue in the first place

16:25 Love of good advice

18:48 Leading citizenship: skill and integrity

24:51 Pride as the enemy

29:32 On modern times: "Do not abandon the ship"

35:14 Mentorship: time and attention

46:39 Hope and humor

54:21 Thomas More as a father

Links:

The Center for Thomas More Studies, featuring video courses, teaching resources, and the written works of Thomas More

The Last Riddle: Advice on Living and Dying Well by Stephen Smith, pre-order for June 2026

The Essential Works of Thomas More edited by Gerard Wegemer and Stephen Smith

A Thomas More Sourcebook edited by Gerard Wegemer and Stephen Smith

On Duties by Cicero

Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage by Gerard Wegemer

"Letter to William Gonell, 1518" by Thomas More

Young Thomas More and the Arts of Liberty by Gerard Wegemer

"A Dialog of Comfort against Tribulation" by Thomas More

"Erasmus on Thomas More" by Erasmus

Also on the Forum:

Elon Musk and Mother Teresa Schools by Nate Gadiano

Teaching the History of our "Strange New World" featuring Michael Moynihan and Austin Hatch

Learning for All Seasons: What We Owe to Thomas More by Dr. Matthew Mehan

The Arts of Liberty – Part I featuring Dr. Matthew Mehan

Featured Opportunities:

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026) – sold out

Teaching Essentials Workshop at The Heights School (June 22-26, 2026)

Conference for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 2026) – link coming soon

"Charity and clarity" are the lodestars when teaching middle school boys with various faith backgrounds—and who are developing faith dispositions of their own.

Bill Dardis teaches middle school religion and eighth grade core at The Heights. In his sixteen years of experience, he's navigated many tricky waters with the boys, with the ultimate goal to bring them into a deeper and more engaged relationship with faith.

3:19 Inviting boys deeper into their faith

8:17 A religion teacher has to pray

9:16 Following student questions

11:27 Charity: respecting parents' moral authority

12:32 Clarity: commitment to the truth

13:28 Avoiding relativism

17:17 Emphasizing essential questions

18:37 Persuasive common ground

25:21 Seeing the familiar as if for the first time

27:30 One, holy, catholic, and apostolic

31:45 When a student's life situation conflicts with the Catechism

37:59 Loving the job

The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton (seeing something familiar as if for the first time)

Becoming Greece, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

Becoming Rome, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

Forming Men of Faith by Alvaro de Vicente

Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic Education: On the Adventure of Truth featuring Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti

Leaving Room for the Holy Spirit by Mark Grannis

"The Talk": On the Role of Schools and Fathers featuring Michael Moynihan

Fathers Series for Fathers of Current Students at The Heights School (February 2026)

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

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 causes are the same: not knowing what our life is really and ultimately for.

In his talk at The Heights Forum Convivium 2025, Dr. Brooks shares the facts about calling—where neuroscience, psychology, and theology all agree, and how he (finally) found his. He goes on to say that helping young people to discover the true Christian purpose of life and then one's personal calling is the missionary work of teachers.

00:04:12 Teaching: a missionary field 00:06:15 Crisis of meaning among the young 00:07:35 Crisis of calling among more than the young 00:14:23 Sanctifying ordinary work 00:18:42 The marshmallow experiment: not all it seems 00:24:40 High achievers with no calling 00:27:55 Three tests for goal setting 00:36:12 Four profiles for career trajectory 00:44:31 Success addiction: when love feels conditional 00:48:33 Arrival fallacy: when the goal doesn't satisfy 00:51:34 Posture of submission to find your calling

Arthur Brooks: The Science of Happiness, Work & Life, personal website

The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness by Arthur Brooks, pre-order for March 2026

"How to Follow the Right Star" by Arthur Brooks, The Atlantic

Choosing a College—Or Not featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Rethinking College: Why go? How? When? featuring Arthur Brooks

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

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 healthy operational work culture. Lencioni's book, The Three Big Questions, brings that same expertise to bear on the modern frantic family: helping parents find their family identity, create intentional priorities, and live with more order and purpose.

4:01 Typical family operations

9:09 Frantic families in a frantic world

14:36 What makes your family unique?

21:57 Parent leadership

26:02 What is your family's top priority right now?

32:30 "Priority" shouldn't be plural

36:52 Long-standing objectives

38:46 Temporary rally cries

39:49 How do you deploy these answers intentionally?

45:22 Staying on track

The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

The Frantic Family Model, family worksheet PDF

Family Culture featuring Alvaro de Vicente

How to Foster a Family Culture in Your Home by Alvaro de Vicente

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

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 the world…. Our lower school head, Colin Gleason, casts a different vision: the benevolent king, the merciful brother, the knight at vigil in the sanctuary.

Yes, our role as fathers is to protect—most often through a steady presence that communicates security to our children. When we do our job well, they can live with confidence. In his talk from the Fatherhood Conference last fall, Colin identified five battlegrounds for establishing this kind of security, most of which are in our own homes.

The Father as a Guide to the World featuring Michael Moynihan

The Father as Presence featuring Andrew Reed

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

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 upper school classics teacher Tom Cox defends the place of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in the epic tradition. He then explains why Middle Earth is so uniquely suited to the middle school, using Samwise the Stouthearted as our guide to the heart of a middle school boy.

2:46 Rethinking "the middle"

4:01 How LotR prepares boys for upper school

7:57 How LotR meets boys in middle school

12:47 Contrasted with other epics

14:41 Samwise as a middle school model

24:47 Tolkien's lessons for teachers and parents

26:07 Samwise the Stouthearted: earning his epic epithet

31:18 "Bear one another's burdens, fulfill the law of Christ"

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Iliad by Homer, prose translation by A. S. Kline

Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox

Becoming Greece, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

Becoming Rome, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

The Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox

The Hope of Hobbits and the Despair of Denethor by Tom Cox

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

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 introduction to the "other," the outside world. The father will continue this crucial role as mediator and representative to the outside world throughout a boy's childhood.

With decades of experience and dozens of personal anecdotes, Upper School Head Michael Moynihan addressed the 2025 Fatherhood Conference to share how a father's parenting outlook now will shape his son's vocational and professional readiness to enter the outside world as an adult.

00:05:47 Mr. Moynihan's background 00:08:17 Fathers represent the outside world 00:12:21 Model God's loving fatherhood 00:17:02 Awaken the child's own agency 00:24:52 Partner with your wife to build this home culture

The Talk and Beyond: Raising Children in a Confused Culture by Michael Moynihan

Decisive Parenting: Forming Authentic Freedom in Your Children by Michael Moynihan

The Father and His Family: A Guidebook for Aspiring, New, and Experienced Fathers by Michael Moynihan

You're the Man for the Job: The Vocation of Fatherhood featuring Alvaro de Vicente

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, including a paraphrase at the beginning of every HeightsCast episode. But what constitutes intellectual formation? What does educating the intellect look like? Co-founder of the Hillbilly Thomists and Rector Magnificus at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, joins us for a deep-dive into the rich Catholic understanding of intellectus, habitus, ratio, and what it means to "form" these God-given faculties.

1:35 Intellectus: to read into reality

7:41 Modern challenges to intellectus

13:35 Habitus: a stable disposition towards excellence

17:59 Modern challenges to habitus

21:22 Ratio vs. intellectus

27:07 Intuitive "sight" as a function of intellect

32:27 Developing clear "sight" in the young

34:35 Forming the heart alongside intellect

38:47 Whether the heart and intellect fully integrate

44:01 Beauty reveals the life of the mind to itself

The Hillbilly Thomists, co-founded by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Contemplation and the Cross: A Catholic Introduction to the Spiritual Life by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Wisdom in the Face of Modernity by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Full catalog of books by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

The Regensburg Address by Pope Benedict XVI

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott

Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

Why Beauty Matters: The Postmodern Pressure on Our Interior Life featuring Dr. Jason Baxter

Teaching Sovereign Knowers, essay series by Michael Moynihan

"Fact or Opinion?": Roots of Relativism in an Ethical Dilemma by Michael Moynihan

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)