Category: HeightsCast

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: How can parents discern if a smartphone would be beneficial for their son?  When is the right time to entrust him with this powerful tool? Under what circumstances?  Will waiting to give your son a smartphone render him ill-prepared for college and beyond? More…

Michael Moynihan unpacks his article about whether or not The Heights is a classical school. 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…

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…

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…

This week, we welcome back Dr. Matt Mehan, former Heights teacher and long-time contributor to The Forum. Among a host of other things, Matt has written on the liberal arts, spoken about politics and poetry, and shared the wisdom of Thomas More on handling bad news. In this episode Dr. 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, in turn, introduces us, his human counterparts, to concepts of nature, mercy, and regaining…

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…

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…

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: How can we root our students…

Missed Part I? Click here. Continuing last week’s conversation, in this episode Dr. Newport delves into two things that have become ubiquitous in our lives: texting and email. Whether it is logistical texts with our kids or emails for work, these two technologies can occupy a large portion of our days. Indeed, even a quick text or email can cost us time, as we shift our attention between different contexts.  While texting and email may by now feel like second nature, have we ever stopped to think about how best…

It has been said that the choice is not between philosophy and no philosophy, but between good philosophy and bad philosophy; for to have no philosophy is itself a philosophy, albeit a disastrous one. The same holds true for digital technology which, although often vital in the modern world, can be dangerous if used mindlessly. For these next two episodes, we welcome back Dr. Cal Newport, professor of computer science at Georgetown University and New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including Digital Minimalism and A World Without Email. In…