Inside The Heights: Spring Campus Visits Underway

Spring at The Heights brings more than just cherry blossoms; it welcomes visitors to campus. Our spring visit cycle is in full swing, and we’ve had the pleasure of hosting 10 institutions from across the country and beyond. Notably, we recently welcomed four school leaders from Hong Kong for a week-long immersion in The Heights culture and philosophy of education. Opening our doors to teachers and administrators is an essential part of sharing our vision and approach to educating boys. As one visitor put it, “If you merely describe it,...

Reframing Our Desire to Be Liked

We often speak of a pedagogical friendship between teacher and student: the earnest desire for the student’s good, the collaborative adventure through difficult material, and the trust built thereby. But we shouldn’t oversimplify this friendship: it’s not merely to be liked by our students. From rookie teachers to decades-long veterans, we can all feel that pull to be the “favorite teacher.” But what kind of frameworks should we keep in mind as we serve our students well? This week, Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente unpacks the very human desire to...

Forum Announces the Launch of Convivium

New schools and schools with a renewed sense of mission continue to emerge across the United States and beyond. Institutions dedicated to supporting this growth are keeping pace. As principals, boards, and social scientists have become increasingly aware of, however, a key element is missing from this movement: the presence of a proportionate number of male teachers and institutions focused on supporting their growth. Fifty percent of students are boys, but only twenty percent of teachers are men. Indeed, this low percentage is the latest data point of a downward...

Being Smart About Smartphones

By Alvaro de Vicente

The following essay first appeared as an article in Alvaro de Vicente’s Substack publication, Men in the Making. For more articles like this one, you can visit his page here. Subscribe to stay up-to-date on his writing. With increasing frequency, we see reports on the detrimental effects that smartphones are having on the mental health of children and adolescents. Some schools (including public schools in Connecticut and other states) are experimenting with bans on smartphones for students, and many others are having difficult discussions for the first time about how to control their...