According to Aristotle (and Aquinas and others), the human person is essentially rational and social; man thinks, and he thinks best in the context of friendship. As such, at the very heart of man's education ought to be learning to write effectively, for good writing is thought clarified and beautified which can be shared with others. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, however, seem to pose a formidable challenge to teachers who wish to help their students grow in this most human of crafts.

To help us think through how we as teachers should approach this challenge, this week on HeightsCast we welcome Dr. Matthew Mehan, Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of Government for Hillsdale's Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government on Capitol Hill.

Despite the risks and challenges associated with it, Dr. Mehan argues that teachers should not abandon the at-home long essay. Indeed, as he points out, the creativity and thoughtfulness required by teachers who still wish to utilize the at-home essay, while mitigating the risks of cheating, may even make them better at their own art. As it becomes increasingly easier for a student to cheat his way through simplistic prompts and an outcome-focused approach to writing, teachers must now think more deeply about the kinds of written assignments they give their students and the process they use to guide them along the way.

All this extra effort is well worth it. As Dr. Mehan reminds us: "If you cannot order your thoughts beautifully and rationally, cogently and powerfully, in writing, you cannot clarify your own thinking, nevermind then share that thinking in the most brilliant and candid way."

Chapters

• 0:55 Introduction

• 4:00 Artificial intelligence and teaching the craft of writing

• 7:20 Are at-home assignments worth the risk of cheating?

• 14:00 The real good of teaching writing

• 15:45 Strategies for mitigating cheating

• 19:30 The importance of writing to thinking and socializing

• 20:55 Imitation and the art of writing

• 21:50 More strategies

• 25:40 Summary of strategies for mitigating risk

• Pre-conversations

• Discussion of thesis statement

• Pre-writing process

• Refining your prompts

• Imitation and style

• 27:00 A new era in education?

• 30:25 Will AI alter language more fundamentally?

• 31:50 Some ideas for essay prompts

• 37:12 Love, fear, and the stealing of ideas: the ethics of AI

• 44:05 Can AI really know anything?

• 46:15 How AI can make us better teachers

• 48:00 Cite your sources: the limitation of ChatGPT as a research tool

• 52:22 In-class vs. at-home essays

Also on the Forum

Writing from the Sentence Up by Joe Breslin

5 Don'ts and Dos When Teaching Writing by Joe Breslin

On Writing: A Personal Reflection by Michael Ortiz

Splashing in Puddles: Finding the Creative Writing Flow by Joe Bissex

Why Our Politics Needs Poetry with Dr. Matthew Mehan

In a culture where autonomy is often pursued as an ideal, it's not surprising to learn that America is also experiencing a so-called loneliness epidemic. Together with loneliness, depression is also on the rise—a correlation that makes sense, given man's nature as a social animal.

What is the solution to these problems? While there is perhaps no panacea, there is a particularly important starting point: the intergenerational family.

This week, we explore the idea of "intergenerational human flourishing" with Fr. Robert Gahl, long-time professor at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome, Italy, who was recently appointed Associate Professor in the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.

In this episode, Fr. Bob weaves research from several disciplines—sociology, philosophy, theology, and neuroscience—together with his own personal and pastoral experience. All the data point to the same fact: if they are to flourish, our sons need to know themselves to be part of a bigger story which includes relationships with parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. Such strong intergenerationality will give our boys a sense that life is a total gift.

Our job as educators, then, is to free young people from an individualistic solipsism, in part by helping them discover the role they are created to play in an intergenerational ecosystem.

Chapters

• 3:30 Introduction: intergenerational human flourishing

• 4:55 Human flourishing

• 10:15 Intergenerationality

• 12:45 Protagonists of a story

• 17:30 The role of grandparents

• 22:30 Family in different cultures

• 27:05 Attachment and independence in the home

• 31:15 Cause for hope

• 37:15 Heroism transmitted in the home

• 42:15 Fr. Bob's work at the Busch School

Mentioned in the episode

The Human Flourishing Program, directed by Tyler VanderWeele

Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI

Master of Science in Ecclesial Administration and Management at the Busch School of Business

Also from the Forum

Shaping Your Son's Moral Imagination with Alvaro de Vicente

Be careful that in encouraging a grade, you don't shortchange growth; for a grade ought to be a means to growth, helping students—and their parents—see where they are so they can know where to go. Ideally, grades are the beginning of a conversation about what lies underneath the surface: the "why" beneath the "what".

In today's episode, Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente guides us through a nuanced discussion on how parents can understand, interpret, and respond to their sons' grades while nurturing strong and lasting bonds. Acknowledging that grades serve as a judgment of the quality of a young man's work at a given time, Mr. de Vicente sheds light on strategies to decipher the meaning behind the letters and numbers. Is it a problem of time, habits, or effort? Is it a helpful indicator of aptitude?

Regardless of the cause or cure, Alvaro reminds us that even more important than helping to raise a grade, is strengthening the bond parents have with their son.

Chapters

• 2:30 Defining grades

• 3:30 Grades: more than a necessary evil

• 5:00 How parents should approach grades

• 7:28 Digging into the "why" behind a grade

• 9:35 Elements of a grade: intelligence, time, habits, effort

• 14:45 Optimal Work and grades

• 16:55 Why boys need to own their grades

• 21:00 Evolving relationship with grades

• 24:00 Growth over grades

• 26:00 Respecting a school's professional competence

• 29:35 What your tone communicates

• 36:35 Internal motivation

• 40:00 How to reframe as a parent

Recommended Resources

Punished by Rewards? from The Golden Hour Podcast

Also on the Forum

Handling Poor Grades: Steps to an Academic Reset with Michael Moynihan

Grinders Aren't Heroes: On Student Motivation by Dave Fornaciari and Michael Hude

Motivation: Encouraging Reluctant Students by Tom Cox

"The mind," Plutarch wrote, "is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting." The teacher's job, then, is not so much transferring data about the world from his mind to the students, but leading them to fall in love with the world that they see as good. The same is true for preparing teachers: what is needed is to light a fire.

There is no better man to light such a fire for the teaching vocation than Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente. In this week's episode, Mr. de Vicente addresses the attendees of the 2022 Teaching Vocation Conference, introducing them to teaching as a vocation and a profession. He offers his thoughts on what it means for work to be a vocation, what it means for work to be a profession, and why it is that teachers are called to work that is both a profession and a vocation. Finally, our headmaster shares his thoughts on how we can tell whether the classroom is for us, or rather, whether we have been made for the classroom.

Chapters

• 3:05 Introduction to the topic

• 4:07 What is teaching?

• 7:52 Out of intellectual ignorance, but also moral ignorance

• 12:55 Every school teaches morality

• 16:00 What is a vocation?

• 22:35 The vocation of a teacher

• 27:18 Not a bad audience: you, your pupils, your friends, God

• 29:30 The need for teachers

• 30:10 The field of life

• 32:15 The need for male teachers

• 32:35 Discerning the teaching vocation

Also on the Forum

Guidance for Aspiring Teachers with Alvaro de Vicente

On Preparation for Teaching: Six Attributes of Great Teachers with Colin Gleason

Why Teach? An Introduction to the Teaching Vocation with Rich Moss

The Art of Teaching with Rich Moss

"It's the little details that are vital," said Coach John Wooden. "Little things make big things happen." Among the little details of school, which at times may feel more mundane than meaningful, is the dress code.

To discuss the why behind our dress code, we welcome to the podcast Assistant Headmaster Tom Royals. As parents and teachers, we work together to help our boys look sharp: buttons buttoned, ties up, shoes—yes, leather shoes—laced and tied. Our Assistant Headmaster reminds us that this work is worth the effort despite the repetitive and thankless nature of our stylistic exhortations.

Listen in to learn more about what motivates us to keep the lads looking sharp.

Chapters

• 2:45 What motivates the school's attention to detail in dress?

• 4:30 Why a professional dress code?

• 8:35 Order both inward and outward

• 12:12 Decorum and charity

• 14:40 Preserving decorum and modesty

• 16:25 Modes of encouragement in the hallways

• 20:45 Teacher as the anchor point for students

• 22:40 Effects of COVID

• 25:00 The home front

Also on the Forum

Dressing Like a Gentleman by George Messenger

Teaching Magnanimous Dress with Joel Sellier

Material Order and the Middle School Boy with Kyle Blackmer

Self-Mastery: On Fostering Interior Freedom in Schools with Alvaro de Vicente

What, you might ask, does cheese have to do with education? The answer is not that you may find holes in both, but rather that both require attention to the local culture to be made whole.

This week on HeightsCast, Mr. Tom Steenson shares his thoughts on the tone and culture of the classroom. Leaning on nearly twenty-five years of teaching experience, Tom encourages us as teachers to see our classrooms as second homes and our role as assisting their primary families. There are, of course, important differences between being a parent and being a teacher, yet the overlap between the two vocations is striking and worth pondering.

Listen to Mr. Steenson's ideas on how to shape the tone and culture of the classroom to be a place where students know they're loved, love to learn, and therefore learn to know and love all the more.

Chapters

• 2:15 Chesterton and cheese
• 5:07 Like father, like teacher
• 9:35 How teaching is an art
• 11:50 What is "tone"?
• 15:05 Externals that affect the tone
• 18:10 Classrooms as expressing the teacher's personality
• 19:15 Differences between being a parent and a teacher
• 23:13 Overcoming first judgments
• 25:45 A key aspect of being an effective teacher
• 32:50 Recommended reading for teachers
• 35:15 On posters

Also from the Forum

School Tone, the Most Powerful Teacher with Alvaro de Vicente

Discipline in the Classroom: On the Art of Order with Colin Gleason

Artwork in Schools: On the Buildings that Build Us with Joe Cardenas

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

John Paul II's "Culture-First" Approach: The Pope-Saint's Lessons for Parents, Teachers, and Leaders with George Weigel

Ways to Foster a Family Culture by Alvaro de Vicente

Upper School Head Michael Moynihan encourages teachers to view their students as sovereign knowers called to exercise agency in their learning. As teachers, we lead by walking backwards, but our students should provide the forward momentum. Yet this momentum must itself be fostered by a proper approach to the art of teaching. Mr. Moynihan shares ideas here about how teachers can create an environment conducive to this sense of agency.

In this episode, Heights Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente elaborates on his vision for our Heights Graduates as "Men Fully Alive." This vocation is a life-long pursuit. The closer we get, the farther we realize we have to travel. And yet, the calling to full and authentic manhood brings peace once embraced. This peace results from knowing who we are, thinking big, and realizing that we can pursue these ends with joy and friendship.

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.