HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

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

In schools today, Shakespeare is often taught superficially. Students attempt to grasp the plot with the aid of their teacher, who helps them through the difficult Elizabethan English. At best they learn something about the beautification of language and the cultural significance of the Bard. But his work is not taught as it was written to be understood, that is, sapientially, for growth in practical wisdom and the ability to see more clearly the nature of man and the man's relationship with both fellow man and God.

This week on HeightsCast, we welcome back Dr. Matthew Mehan for a discussion of Shakespeare and the education of leaders. Associate Dean and Assistant Professor at Hillsdale's Van Andel Graduate School of Government, Dr. Mehan helps us see that there is more to Shakespeare than is immediately apparent from a surface-level reading of his plays. He explains how a deep reading of the Bard offers a training in that nimbleness of mind—a good mother wit—without which, St. Thomas More said, all learning is half lame.

To do this, Dr. Mehan walks us through the opening of Hamlet, Act V. Not only does he offer an example of Shakespeare's genius, he also gives an example of how to teach Shakespeare as not only aesthetically delightful but also morally instructive and useful—the ideal companion to theology and philosophy.

For educators interested in learning more about Shakespeare and how to teach him as a teacher of wisdom, check out the Forum's summer workshop on Shakespeare.

Chapters

• 1:00 How Shakespeare is taught in schools today
• 3:00 Why and how to study Shakespeare
• 6:03 Polysemy and the good mother wit
• 10:13 Literature as experience
• 12:55 Mirror neurons and man as mimetic
• 14:10 Ethical gyms and ethical gems
• 16:25 Shakespeare as Socrates, Nester, and Virgil
• 19:00 How to approach Shakespeare for the novice
• 23:10 Opening up the text: Hamlet, V.1
• 33:40 Shakespeare as teacher of self-government and liberty
• 35:00 Shakespeare and the American tradition
• 36:40 Advice for teachers
• 39:00 Shakespeare as a companion for life

Also from the Forum

Summer Workshops for Teachers

Why Our Politics Needs Poetry with Dr. Matthew Mehan

On Reading Literature by Joe Bissex

Five Fruits of a Poetic Education by Nate Gadiano

In Real Time: The Temporal Order of the Liberal Arts by Dr. Matthew Mehan

On Pieper's Prudence: A Virtue for the Great Souled with Colin Gleason, Tom Cox, and Austin Hatch

In G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, he tells a sort of parable in which children are given space to play on a mountain top surrounded by steep precipices on all sides. At first the children are left to play on the mountain top without any walls. Fearful of falling off one of the edges, they all huddle up in the middle. Then, walls are erected, and the security that such walls provide gives the children the confidence they need to play without fear of falling.

A father's loving presence can act like such walls in the lives of his children. Yet, at times, the practical realities of life make it difficult for fathers to be fully present in such a way.

This week on HeightsCasts, we feature a talk given by headmaster Alvaro de Vicente on the topic of paternal presence, originally offered at our recent fatherhood conference. Although there are no set manuals for successful parenting, in his talk Mr. de Vicente suggests four areas that fathers can consider as they examine the ways they may or may not be present in their children's lives:

1. The importance of paternal presence
2. The obstacles to paternal presence
   1. Professional work
   2. Personal interests
   3. Difficult children
3. The types of presence
   1. Physical
   2. Intellectual
   3. Moral
   4. Spiritual
4. The stages of presence
   1. Holding the hand
   2. Holding the back of the bike
   3. Holding the second steering wheel
   4. Holding the phone

In the end, Alvaro encourages fathers to behave as they would wish their sons to behave when they reach their own age. But when they fail, he also reminds them of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta's words: "God doesn't ask that we succeed in everything, but that we are faithfull.".

Chapters

• 0:14 WelcomeStart
• 2:15 The importance of presence
• 5:00 Some challenges to being present
• 11:40 DSuggestions for dealing with those challenges
• 12:50 Types of presence
  • 13:00 Physical
  • 18:55 Intellectual
  • 27:35 Moral
  • 29:00 Spiritual
• 33:10 Stages of presence
• 37:40 Takeaways and concluding thoughts

Also on the Forum

Friendship for Fathers: On Living and Teaching the Art with Prof. John Cuddeback

The Bedrock Principle of Fatherhood with Andy Reed

The Father and His Family: On Fatherhood with Michael Moynihan

Parenting from Fear: On Reasons for Confidence with Alvaro de Vicente

Parental Authority: On Our Role with Dr. Leonard Sax

As the world of academia becomes increasingly polarized, parents may be concerned about sending their children off to colleges where the general culture and ethos of campus are less than favorable to the worldview and way of life found in their own homes. Yet, many of these institutions are also prestigious and hold promise for success in one's professional career.

How, then, should parents think about sending their children to such institutions? How should students, who have decided to attend them, approach their time there? Fly under the radar? Be an argumentative warrior for what they think is true?

To help us think through some of these questions, we welcome Nate Gadiano, Executive Director of The Heights Forum. Drawing on his experience as an undergraduate at Princeton and a graduate student at Notre Dame, Nate shares his thoughts on engaging with academic communities and cultures that differ from one's own upbringing.

This podcast discussion was occasioned by a recent talk given by Mr. Gadiano for a group of parents, in which he discussed how parents can prepare their children for different college environments. In that talk, Nate gave seven principles for engaging with others in a fruitful and friendly manner:

1. Go where you are not welcomed.
2. Make your beliefs normal and attractive.
3. Don't argue with strangers; discuss with friends.
4. Prepare more than you plan.
5. Find the heart of the disagreement.
6. Think long term.
7. Approach souls on your knees.

In the end, Nate's message to students as they prepare for college is contained in these words: be careful that in winning an argument you don't lose a soul; be careful that in winning a friend you don't lose your soul.

Chapters

• 1:15 Introduction
• 3:35 Sending your children to universities with antithetical worldviews
  • 4:32 A caveat: know yourself
  • 5:30 Digging into the why: service of souls
  • 6:08 In Our Lady's secret service
• 7:10 Advice for high school seniors
  • 8:10 Go where you are not welcomed
  • 10:50 Make your beliefs normal
  • 11:48 Answer contempt with compassion
• 14:00 Finding a coach and a team
• 16:40 Advice for difficult conversations
  • 17:20 Prepare more than you plan
  • 18:05 Have more than you show, speak less than you know
• 19:45 On preparation
• 22:10 On friendship with people who disagree
• 22:45 Discovering the hidden good
• 28:00 Is it possible for people to change their mind?

Also from the Forum

Parenting from Fear: On Reasons for Confidence with Alvaro de Vicente

The Man Fully Alive: On Our Vision with Alvaro de Vicente

When to Fight: On Fistcuffs and the Peacemaking Protector with Kyle Blackmer

Finding Mentors After Graduation: On Find Your Six with Pat Kilner

On Preparing for Bad News: Raising Men Who Can Handle It with Dr. Matthew Mehan

Parents love their children and desire the best for them. Yet at times the world seems full of dangers and obstacles to a child's ultimate good. Because of this, a certain fear may cast a shadow on the ways parents relate to their children.

To discuss parenting and fear, we welcome back Mr. Alvaro de Vicente to HeightsCast. In the episode, Alvaro explains some of the dangers of being overprotective and parenting from a sense of fear. Rather, he encourages parents to prudently discern moments to give their children the space for making the right choice on their own, which of course means that they also have the freedom to make a mistake. At the same time, Alvaro offers advice on optimistic and formative ways to say "no" to one's children, when such is necessary.

As Alvaro reminds us, gratitude for the good received helps one to make positive decisions about the good to be done. If families make intentional time to remember and give thanks to God for the goodness in the world, parents and children alike will be naturally drawn to that Goodness from which the world came.

Chapters

• 0:40 Introduction: fear based parenting
• 2:15 Why we fall into parenting with fear
• 3:50 Manifestations of parenting with fear
• 9:05 How and when to say "no"
• 11:58 The middle class myth and parental anxiety
• 14:05 Why parents should avoid this mode of parenting
• 17:20 Rebellious children
• 19:05 Why we shouldn't be afraid
• 21:40 Practical considerations
• 27:12 The unexpected, difficult questions
• 30:30 Parenting with optimism

Also on the Forum

Parental Authority: Our Role with Dr. Leonard Sax

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

Friendship for Fathers: Living and Teaching the Art with Prof. John Cuddeback

Parenting: Patience or Optimism with Andy Reed

His Anxiety and Ours: Confessions of an Anxious Parent Who Happens to Be a Therapist with Alex Berthé

In the past twenty years, research suggests that parents are worrying more about their children and spending more to provide them with comforts. In spite of such worry and wealth, the past twenty years have also seen an increase in these same American-born children from well-to-do families being diagnosed with various psychiatric disorders. Meanwhile, parents tend to swing from overly strict to overly lenient. Balancing love, both tender and tough, is a difficult art.

To help us dive deeper into this parental task, we welcome Dr. Leonard Sax to HeightsCast. In the episode, Dr. Sax discusses his book, The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups. Drawing both from the wisdom of the ancients and the insights of modern science, Dr. Sax explains the importance of parental authority in raising children. Besides discussing parenting authority, he also offers thoughts on the importance of culture and schools, urging parents to consider carefully and choose prudently the school to which they will send their children.

As Dr. Sax reminds us, authentic freedom is not mere license, and if children are to be free in the end, they must, at the start, have the right amount of parental guidance. To give too much freedom too soon may end in the very loss of the freedom which one would have hoped to give.

Chapters

• 0:30 Introduction
• 2:15 What is parental authority?
• 11:00 Parental worries
• 19:05 Some statistics on psychiatric diagnoses in America
• 21:30 Parents and the transmission of culture
• 23:35 The middle class myth
• 27:52 "Elon Musk" schools vs. "Mother Theresa" schools
• 32:20 Shifts in American culture from 1967-2017
• 34:40 Approaching difficult grades as a parent
• 38:25 Too hard, too soft, or just right: should parents negotiate?
• 45:50 Advice for single parents
• 49:10 Fake it until you make it
• 53:45 The importance of intergenerational bonds

Recommended Resources

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Dr. Leonard Sax

Why Gender Matters, Second Edition: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Dr. Leonard Sax

Also on the Forum

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

Carpool: Making Commute Time Good Time with Kyle Blackmer

Friendship for Fathers: Living and Teaching the Art with Prof. John Cuddeback

Hell, Dante expresses, is being trapped by our false attempts to be free. Thus, the Comedy's Satan is forever stuck in the ice of a lake made frozen by the beating of his wings as he attempts to "free" himself from the reality of God. Education, on the other hand, frees us from such a lake by leading us to embrace, with the fullness of our being, the Truth which sets us free.

This week on HeightCast we welcome Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti for a discussion of what Pope Benedict XVI can teach us about such an education. Drawing especially from the late pope's 2008 address to educators at The Catholic University of America, Dr. Lanzilotti explains how hope and the beauty which engenders it rests at the heart of Pope Benedict's response to what he called a crisis of education in the modern world.

Moving between theology and praxis, Dr. Lanzilotti focuses our attention on the nature and calling of educational institutions, both as they relate to the Church and to the world at large. Beyond places of data transfer or ready-made success measurable by test scores, such institutions are meeting places that reverberate with the life of the Church. They are places where students encounter the truth and especially that Truth which is found in prayer. They are places where beauty—the splendor of truth—can reverberate first in the hearts of students and then in the families and communities where they are called to serve after graduation.

Chapters

• 1:23 Introduction: Pope Benedict XVI's address to educators
• 2:40 The virtue of hope and education for the future
• 6:22 What does it mean to be a Catholic educator?
• 11:00 Restoring the fullness of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
• 13:30 The importance of why questions
• 14:30 The communal dimension of education
• 19:10 Egalitarian elitism and intellectual charity
• 21:35 The intellect and the will
• 25:15 The will and our heart
• 28:25 The interaction between affectivity and the human heart
• 30:50 Moral truth
• 33:55 The adventure of education
• 37:53 Both for Catholic institutions and Catholic teachers who are not in Catholic schools
• 40:15 Concluding thoughts: more than a facade

Additional Resources

Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

"Joseph Ratzinger as Doctor of Incarnate Beauty" by Tracey Rowland

"Address to Educators at The Catholic University of America" by Pope Benedict XVI

"Letter on the Urgent Task of Educating Young People" by Pope Benedict XVI

"General Audience on Prayer and the Holy Family of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI

"Message on Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization" by Pope Benedict XVI

Also on the Forum

Order and Surprise: On Beauty and the Western Tradition with Lionel Yaceczko

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

On the Education of the Human Heart with Anton Vorozhko

What does it mean to be "civilized"? What is justice? What is a citizen? Given the opportunity, would you have killed Julius Caesar? Was Nero inevitable, or is it possible to keep one's wits while running such a powerful empire?

These are a few of the questions that eighth graders at The Heights are challenged to ponder together in their core class. With the help of their teachers and a new history textbook, the boys not only consider these questions amongst themselves but do so in dialogue with some of the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition.

This week on HeightsCast, we discuss Tom Cox and Bill Dardis's new book, Becoming Rome: Foundation, Republic, and Empire in the Words of Eminent Romans. In addition to sharing the story behind their writing, Tom and Bill introduce us to their method of teaching history at the primary and secondary school levels. Drawing on fourteen years of experience in the classroom as well as graduate studies in the liberal arts, Tom and Bill offer practical insights for teachers who hope not only to bring history to life in the classroom but also to prepare their students to bring those lessons into their own lives.

Chapters

• 0:32 Introduction
• 2:00 A better approach to the history textbook
• 4:50 The big questions hidden in the narratives of history
• 7:00 The contemporary approach to history lessons
• 9:56 Receiving tradition and engaging it
• 11:00 Why study history at all?
• 15:50 A roadmap to history
• 19:15 Method of the book
• 24:23 Seminars and discussing difficult topics
• 28:15 Why write a book?
• 31:32 The book's target age level
• 32:45 The relationship between Christianity and the book

Also on the Forum

The Importance of Ugly History by Mark Grannis

Keeping the Story in History by Mark Grannis

Seeing History: On Using Images in the History Classroom by Kyle Blackmer

Hillsdale's M. Spalding on the Importance of History Pt. I with Dr. Matt Spalding

Hillsdale's M. Spalding on the Importance of History Pt. II with Dr. Matt Spalding

Plutarch's Lives Teach: Character Education through Story with Tom Cox

History the Way it Was…and the Way it Should Be by Bill Dardis

Writing and Thought; Oratory and Ethics: What We Give Our Seventh Graders in the Core with Tom Cox

As teachers and parents, it is often difficult to find the balance between leniency and strictness, love and fear. Getting the right tone, being firm in principle and flexible in preference, is indeed an art and an especially difficult one. While nothing can replace personal experience for growing in this art, self-reflection is a great aid to this end.

This week on HeightsCast, Mr. Colin Gleason, Head of the Lower School, offers an aid to our personal reflection. The episode features a presentation by Mr. Gleason from our recent Art of Teaching Conference. At that conference, he spoke to seventy men from across the United States and beyond about how we, as teachers, can foster an environment of respectful dominion in the classroom. Colin offers a list of twelve principles, together with a great many practical pointers and delightful anecdotes.

In the end, the point of discipline is to foster the right tone for learning, the proper culture for growth. Whether this growth occurs in the home or in the classroom, having the right tone is ultimately about love. Rome, they say, was not loved because she was great; she was great because she was first loved. So too our sons and students.

Chapters

• 2:25 Beginning with the end
• 3:50 A question of balance
• 6:35 Principle #1: Discipline begins before class begins
• 8:32 Principle #2: Best disciplinary tool is a good lesson plan
• 12:25 Principle #3: Fostering class culture is more effective than listing class rules
• 14:40 Principle #4: We earn capital outside to spend inside
• 17:05 Principle #5: Smiling isn't enough; we need to laugh
• 19:45 Principle #6: Let them love what they see and fear what they don't
• 24:45 Principle #7: Don't confuse personal preference with principles
• 25:40 Principle #8: Non-correction corrections
• 27:35 Principle #9: Replace star stickers with handshakes
• 29:15 Principle #10: Learners over lessons
• 31:25 Principle #11: Replace line-writing with push-ups
• 34:30 Principle #12: When you send students to the principal's office, your authority goes with them

Also on the Forum

Boys, Education, and The Heights with Alvaro de Vicente

Raising Contemplative Sons: The Problem with Boys with Colin Gleason

Our Little Protectors: How Do WE See Our Boys? with Alvaro de Vicente

On Recess: The Benefits of Free Play with Colin Gleason

Toughness for the Adolescent Boy by Kyle Blackmer

Seeing Our Boys with Loving Eyes: Not Projects, but Persons with Tom Royals

Why Boys Need to Be Given Freedom by Andy Reed

Material Order and the Middle School Boy with Kyle Blackmer

Can I Catch It?: On Handling Wildlife with Eric Heil

*For lyrics and history of the Ave Regina Caelorum, please visit adoremus.org.