HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

This week on HeightsCast, we feature a recording of the first Heights Lecture event of the new school year, featuring Alvaro de Vicente:

What is optimism? Is it naive to be optimistic? How is optimism related to hope? How, in the end, do we raise sons who can look life's challenges squarely in the face with the the hint of a smile on their lips, knowing that all is in good hands? Join our Headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, for an evening lecture on how to raise optimistic, hopeful young men.

Our time, like most all others, has its challenges. Spend an evening with fellow parents interested in keeping their sons' visage fixed firmly on the fullness of reality, and the opportunities of the present moment.

Bad news is all around us. It always has been. It always will be. As if personal and family challenges weren't enough, we have an attention economy that seems dead set on giving a generation of young people chronic anxiety about seemingly cataclysmic events. How can we prepare our children to handle bad news? Quite simply, by handling it well ourselves, remaining saintly and cool under fire. How do we do that? Listen in to learn more.

Additional Resources:

• Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals
• Dr. Mehan's piece in the Washington Examiner

In this week's episode, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente helps us develop a philosophy of technology. Building off previous conversations on The Forum with Cal Newport, Mr. de Vicente takes a deep dive into the topic of smartphones. In particular, he helps us answer the following questions:

1. How can parents discern if a smartphone would be beneficial for their son?
2. When is the right time to entrust him with this powerful tool? Under what circumstances?
3. Will waiting to give your son a smartphone render him ill-prepared for college and beyond?
4. More provocatively, is it correct to assume that holding off on the smartphone is merely delaying the inevitable?

As Mr. de Vicente explains, parents' discussions of these questions ought principally to consider their son's level of self-mastery. Like any tool, if a smartphone is to be of help rather than harm, the user must be prepared to use it and not be used by it.

On a practical level, the two basic questions to be asked are:

1. What are my son's current needs?
2. Can my son master this piece of technology?

To answer the first question, Mr. de Vicente suggests that parents consider:

1. The purposes of technology: communication, information, organization, and entertainment.
2. The possible (objective) needs of the boy: calling, texting, GPS.
3. What tool--whether a smartphone, flip-phone, or some other device--will satisfy the specific needs without being detrimental to the boy's ultimate good.

In order to answer the third point, it is helpful to look at whether a boy has demonstrated self-mastery in the following areas:

1. Property: clothes, school materials, sports equipment.
2. Spaces: room, bed, closet, desk.
3. Time: morning and evening routines, weekends and holidays.
4. Urges: speaking, food, desire to have a phone.

While no-one is perfect, if a child has not displayed a certain level of self-mastery in these areas of his life, it will be hard for him to use a smartphone well. Indeed, it is far easier for a boy to put a shirt on a hanger or make use of a calendar than it is for him to resist the algorithms of technologies whose aim it is for him to be unable to. If he does not do the former, one ought not assume he will do the latter.

In the end, using smartphones well is not a matter of learning how to navigate technology per se, which is a skill that is not learned with much difficulty. It is, rather, a matter of developing self-mastery, which is a virtue that requires both time and perhaps more than little toil.

Show Highlights

• How to develop a personal philosophy of technology
• In general, what is a good approach to smartphones?
• Questions parents should ask themselves when deciding whether their child needs (and is ready for) a smartphone
• What are the purposes of a phone?
• Are all needs equal?
• How do you know if your child is capable of mastering a smartphone?
• What parents can do to limit bad uses of technology
• Does a high schooler need a smartphone in order to be prepared for college?
• Is there a right age to give your child a smartphone?
• Challenge the assumption that the smartphone is inevitable for everyone
• Some alternative phones to the traditional smartphone
• What to do if a parent has mistakenly given their child a smartphone

Also from The Forum

Digital Minimalism: Creating a Philosophy of Personal Technology Use

Digital Minimalism: Creating a Philosophy of Personal Technology Use, Part II

Like a tree, whose roots are firmly planted in the ground and whose branches reach toward the sky above, education at The Heights is at once traditional and forward looking. While drawing liberally from the western canon and "the best that has been thought and said," to borrow Matthew Arnold's phrase, a Heights education is nevertheless at home in the modern world. Neither the buried archives of special collections, nor the high-rising offices of enterprising tech start-ups are uncharted waters for Heights alumni. Because of the double-nature of our approach to education, the question of how The Heights fits into the classical school movement produces an interesting and important conversation. To help us think through the ways in which The Heights is in dialogue with both the classical and contemporary worlds, we welcome Head of Upper School, Michael Moynihan, back to HeightsCast. With over twenty-five years of experience as a teacher, Michael offers us a nuanced discussion of:

1. How a traditional approach to education can embrace the advances of modernity without losing its roots.
2. The ways in which modernity, properly contextualized, can help correct certain biases latent in classical thought.
3. The role of professional preparation in a liberal arts education.

Whether or not one's work is clearly connected to the classical ideal of contemplation, the goal of education converges in the heart of a man who knows he is a son of God; and who, like the Son of God, sanctifies his ordinary work.

Show Highlights

• Is the Heights a classical school?
• How does the Heights fit into the classical school movement?
• The role of professor John Dewey in progressive educational trends.
• How Dorothy Sayers' speech on "The Lost Tools of Learning" sparked a revival in traditional education.
• Ought from an is? How our anthropology informs our education
• The baby in the bathwater: some positives of mainstream education today viz. the acquisition of professional skills.
• How modern thought corrects some shortcomings of the classical tradition.
• The vision of St. Josemaria and what this means for education at The Heights.
• How education can help students to passionately love the world.
• Sanctification of ordinary work and divine filiation.
• Work as a sharing in the home of Nazareth.
• Is professional work a distraction from contemplation?
• The teaching vocation

Suggested Reading

The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers

Passionately Loving the World by St. Josemaria Escriva

In certain school systems, it is perhaps more common to find students dissecting samples and diagraming abstractions. The boys in the Lower School at The Heights, however, begin their scientific formation not in a lab, among dead specimens, but in nature, among living creatures. Their text book is not full of paper, but of paper's source, trees; for their primary text is the book of nature itself.

In this week's episode, Eric Heil takes us outdoors--so to speak--for a discussion of natural history. With over fourteen years of experience teaching at The Heights, in addition to having spent time as a researcher both for at the Bronx Zoo and the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park, Eric offers us thoughts both practical and lofty.

First, Eric explains what natural history is and how it differs from other ways of approaching science at the elementary level. Then, he considers what a typical natural history lesson might look like. Next, Eric expounds the elements of nature journaling, a typical exercise for a natural history class. In particular, he explains John Muir Laws' three step framework for nature journaling:

1. Explain what you see.
2. Expound on what the observed reality makes you think of.
3. Wonder about what you do not yet know.

Lastly, the discussion takes a turn for the transcendental, as Eric considers some of the existential fruits of natural history.

Beyond books and diagrams, and indeed even the boy's own words and sketches, the study of natural history draws students into that mystery which moves those animals they have found. Perhaps this is the reason why natural history has been deemed the most important subject taught in the Valley: the silence that it instills is the beginning of a prayer; indeed, the greatest prayer, which is gratitude.

Show Highlights

• What is natural history and why does it matter?
• Campus as the textbook itself
• How is a natural history class different from other ways of teaching science at the elementary level?
• Jean-Henri Fabre and the importance of direct observation
• The parts of a typical natural history lesson
• What is a nature journal and how do you make one?
• The benefits of studying natural history
• How natural history integrates into an education for realism.
• Existential goods of natural history
• Why is natural history the most important subject taught in the Lower School?

Suggested Reading

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

A Natural History of North American Trees by Donald Culross Peattie

Nature's Events: A Notebook of the Unfolding Seasons by John Serrao

Observing Insect Lives by Donald Stokes (and several other Stokes Nature Guides)

Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth

Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification by Thomas J. Elpel

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws (and www.johnmuirlaws.com)

The Naturalist's Notebook by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright & Bernd Heinrich

natureoutside.com nature journal website by Steven Stolper

The Forest by Roger Caras

The Tree Identification Book by George W. D. Symonds

Sketching Outdoors in Autumn by Jim Arnosky

Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame)

Insects (A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press) Revised

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 6th Edition (Peterson Field Guides)

Also on The Forum

Webinar: How to Keep a Nature Journal

On Nature Journals and Observant Souls

"Can I catch it?": On Handling Wildlife

Reading Recommendations for Keeping a Nature Journal

Why We Need Exposure to Nature

Nature Deficit Disorder: The Importance of Green Time

Ray Bradbury once remarked that, to destroy a culture, burning books is not necessary; all that is needed is to convince people to stop reading them. And, of course, the easiest way to sway people from reading is to keep them illiterate. Indeed, this is also the best way to rob them of their liberty. Frederick Doublas once remarked that "once you learn to read you will forever be free."

Now, it may be true that more people are literate today than ever before. Some statistics indicate that around eighty-six percent of adults in the world can read and write at a basic level. Compare this statistic to data from the early nineteenth century, when only twelve percent of people in the world could read, and there is indeed much to celebrate.

But, what about other forms of literacy? Are people more culturally literate now? Can they read deeply, for understanding and not merely for a surface-level comprehension? What does it even mean to be literate? As educators--and particularly educators drawing from and adding to the liberal arts tradition--it is paramount that we consider such questions.

Here to talk about reading and its many forms is Dr. Lionel Yaceczko, lover of languages and teacher of Classics at The Heights School. In this episode, Dr. Yaceczko sits down for a discussion of Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book. Using Adler's book as a springboard, we first run through the three kinds of reading, specified by the end to which they aim:

1. Reading for information
2. Reading for entertainment
3. Reading for understanding

Second, Dr. Yaceczko helps us tackle what he calls the perennial problems that can make reading difficult, namely vocabulary and syntax, as well as some of the stumbling blocks that are particular to contemporary readers. Third, we consider Adler's four levels of reading:

1. Elementary
2. Inspectional
3. Analytical
4. Syntopical

In particular, Dr. Yaceczko delves into the third level of reading--analytical--the preparation for which Adler argues ought to be the goal of a liberal arts education at the secondary school level.

To be sure, the development of the capacity for analytical reading is no small task, but it is well worth the effort; for the difficulty of the endeavor comes from the loftiness of the goal. Despite the ardor of the task, rest assured: with patience our sons--and ourselves--may little-by-little grow into better readers. After all, the attainment of any goal, no matter how lofty, begins with small steps; it is from the valley that one ascends to the heights.

Show Highlights

• What is the most controversial thing we teach at The Heights?
• How Classics are the most egalitarian form of elitism
• What is literacy?
• The three kinds of reading and what this means for literacy
• Why is reading great books so difficult?
• Two perennial problems for readers
• Adler's four levels of reading
• Syntopical and Collocative reading
• What Analytical reading is and why liberal arts high schools should foster it
• How reading and writing inform each other
• What makes a work of literature beautiful?
• Can true beauty be popularized?
• The three steps to reading deeply
• What parents can do to help their sons overcome the challenges of analytical reading
• Love: the strongest motivator

Suggested Reading

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer J. Adler

Also on the Forum

Forming Deep Workers with Cal Newport

Eulexia: The Goal of Deep Reading by Lional Yaceczko

Summer Reading with a Purpose with Tom Longano

How to Master the Art of Reading Outside by Tom Longano

Dr. Mehan on Children's Literature and Human Flourishing: Introducing the Handsome Little Cygnet

Mentioned in the Episode

A Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg

Timaeus by Plato

Great Expectations by Jane Austin

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis

Dr. Matt Mehan introduces us to The Handsome Little Cygnet, a delightful book about a Cygnet growing up in the heart of the big apple. Our fluffy hero introduces his human counterparts to concepts of nature, mercy, and regaining the way after it's been lost. Parents, too, can see here an example of patience and optimism while guiding our cygnets towards flourishing, naturally.

The Handsome Little Cygnet (https://www.amazon.com/Handsome-Little-Cygnet-Matthew-Mehan/dp/1505120608/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=handsome+little+cygnet&qid=1627673893&sr=8-1)

What Winston Churchill once said of buildings, we too can say of family culture. Namely, that we first shape it, and thereafter it shapes us. Indeed, this is especially true for our children, who are particularly impressionable. Whether it is the artwork in a classroom, a coach's demeanor on the sports field, or that stack of books in the living room, our children notice and are formed by everything that surrounds them.

Although summer break is now in full swing, parenting has no vacations. Rather, in many ways parenting intensifies during the breaks, for it is during these times that our homes are perhaps most full. As such, now is a fitting moment to consider the culture we are creating in our homes.

To this end, this week we revisit an episode from our archives. Based on a letter he sent to parents, in this episode, Mr. Alvaro de Vicente offers us seven ideas on how to foster a healthy and happy culture in the home:

1. Have a Library at home.
2. Establish and protect order in common areas of your home.
3. Aim to have dinner together everyday.
4. Engineer one common conversation during dinner.
5. Dedicate a nightly time to family prayer.
6. Spend time with the elderly and lonely.
7. Give to charity.

As a school is like a boy's second home, the home is his first school. And it is in this school that we, as parents, can help him cultivate those virtues, which he will carry with him throughout his entire life--and, God willing, into the next.

Show Highlights

• Why family culture is an important part of your children's formation
• More than mere words: what you do is often more important than what you say
• Is an orderly home an unrealistic goal?
• How to improve family dinner time
• Thoughts on how to build a family library on a budget
• Why a brief time of family prayer can be better than a long time
• How can we reform a family culture gone astray?
• It's not about perfection, but its pursuit

Also on the Forum

Creating a Culture of Learning in the Home

20 Ways to Improve the Family Dinner

If the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the unexpected is to be expected. While certainly not always easy, we have also perhaps learned that the unexpected can be an invitation for adventure, if only we have the eyes to see it as such. Indeed, for many students around the country, the unexpected pandemic was a spur to the adventure of a gap year--or two.

Now, as many of our students will begin--or perhaps return--to college in the coming months, it is fitting that we revisit an old podcast, originally published in 2018, on life after high school.

In this episode, we sit down with Arthur Brooks, formerly the president of the American Enterprise Institute and currently a professor both at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, for a conversation about college and whether it is the right next step for every prep school graduate. In the episode, Dr. Brooks:

1. Challenges the assumption that every prep school grad should attend college right away at any cost.
2. Offers fantastic insights about the entire college experience–from college choice, to choice of majors, to engagement with students and faculty who think differently.
3. Provides helpful guidance to families, as they prudentially discern what is best for each of their children.

Now is a perfect time for us--parents, teachers, and students alike--to think more deeply about what college is for; and, indeed, what life is for. In this way, if college is in our son's path, he may thus make the most of his education. And regardless of if college is in his path, he will thus know that this life is best spent refreshing the souls of others and glorifying God in his daily work.

Show Highlights

• Arthur's story and what we can learn from his non-conventional path
• What is really needed to succeed: hard work and personal responsibility
• Should everyone study the liberal arts?
• Is the value of college purely economic?
• Why all colleges are not equal
• Busting the myth that college is for everyone
• What are prep schools preparing students for?
• The dangers of identity politics in education
• Seven rules for highly effective college students
• Why you should go where you are not welcomed
• How to be on missions, whether on a college campus or in the working world
• Dissolving the stigma around not going to college

Suggested Reading

The Conservative Heart

Gross National Happiness

Resources

The Art of Happiness

In his famous intellectual and spiritual autobiography, Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton remarks that the main problem for philosophers is how they can "contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it." The attainment of this double need--for surprise and for security--is, he maintains, at the heart of human happiness.

Modernity poses similar questions to educators who, though at home in classical and medieval thought, nevertheless desire to prepare their students to live in the middle of the world. Namely:

1. How can we root our students in those timeless truths, so prized by the ancients and furthered by the medievals, while preparing them to embrace the modern world?
2. How can we form our students to be both contemplative and active, to be comfortable in the country and in the city, so to speak?
3. In Biblical terms: how can we remain in this modern world of ours, and yet not be of it?

To help us begin to answer these questions, we welcome to HeightsCast Dr. Daniel Bernardus, a theoretical biologist by training, teacher and tutor at Amsterdam University College by profession, and a philosopher and author by passion. In this episode, Dr. Bernardus introduces us to the ideas of Leonardo Polo, a Spanish philosopher from the University of Navarre, whose work just might offer us a way forward.

Can we integrate the modern, the classical, and the Christian? Can we love the modern world and God first? Listen in and see for yourself.

Show Highlights

• Who is Leonardo Polo?
• How Polo's philosophy can help educators
• Can modern philosophy be integrated with classical and Christian thought?
• What Freedom in Quarantine can teach you
• The roots of modernism and what they can teach us about the way forward
• The limits of classical thought
• How medieval monasteries were places of innovation
• Can anything good come from modernity?
• How modern science can harmonize with classical philosophy
• Consequences of modernism in education
• What is success? Can we measure it?
• How technological innovation can be pursued for love of God
• Why the family is essential to education
• What Leonardo Polo can teach those who are not educators

Suggested Reading

Freedom in Quarantine

Resources

Leonardo Polo Institute of Philosophy