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Podcast
Why Boys Need Mentors
featuring Joe CardenasWhy Boys Need Mentors
Boys need mentors. We know this intuitively from our observations of young and older boys alike. But why? Join Mr. Joe Cardenas (Head of Mentoring) and Alex Berthe (7th Grade Core Teacher) for a conversation on why boys–and their parents–need mentoring.
2
Podcast
Mentoring without a Program
featuring Joe CardenasMentoring without a Program
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...
3
Essay
Starting a Mentoring Program
by Joe CardenasStarting a Mentoring Program
The idea of starting a new program is exciting; the practical execution of the idea is difficult and takes time. This is especially true of a mentoring program. While the aspiration of truly personalizing the education at one’s school sounds good and beautiful, in truth, developing an organized program of formation that does more than merely sound good at an open house is perhaps one of the most difficult things to realize at a school. Nevertheless, with time and perseverance, developing an effective mentoring program is possible. The aim of...
4
Podcast
Anthropological Foundations of Mentoring
featuring Joseph LanzilottiAnthropological Foundations of Mentoring
In June, the Forum hosted a Mentoring Workshop for men across the country (and beyond) to consider the whys and hows of mentoring young boys into young men into men fully alive. It’s always best to start by defining terms. And so, the opening lecture for the workshop weekend featured Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti, theology scholar and upper school teacher at The Heights School, explicating the kind of Christian anthropology that precedes a mentoring relationship. In other words, how are we to understand what man is before we try to help...
5
Podcast
Forming Others: What Mentoring Can and Can't Be
featuring Colin GleasonForming Others: What Mentoring Can and Can't Be
In his address to the Forum’s Mentoring Workshop held in June, our Head of Lower School Colin Gleason helpfully reframed just what mentoring is—and what it can’t be.
6
Podcast
Mentoring Sons to a Successful Summer
featuring Joe CardenasMentoring Sons to a Successful Summer
Click here to watch the follow-up webinar for this episode. While summer is a time for rest and relaxation, it is also an opportunity for personal growth. Indeed, the increase in external freedom, which the summer months often afford our sons, provides an occasion for growth in interior freedom. In this week’s episode, Mr. Joe Cardenas, head of mentoring at The Heights School, discusses how you can help your son make the most of the summer months. To this end, Mr. Cardenas suggests looking at the summer from two perspectives:...
7
Podcast
On Mentoring Struggling Students: Fighting the Right Fires
featuring Dave MaxhamOn Mentoring Struggling Students: Fighting the Right Fires
Continuing with the theme of mentoring, this week Mr. David Maxham discusses how we, as parents and teachers, can better mentor struggling students by taking a step back and focusing on the basics. He offers three practical guideposts for these wonderful guys to strive for as they take steps toward becoming the man they were made to be. We remain, as always, optimistic. After establishing a relationship of trust with your mentees, Mr. Maxham recommends helping our boys structure their days around the following three key moments: Waking up in...
8
Podcast
Praise and Affirmation without Flattery
featuring Alex BerthéPraise and Affirmation without Flattery
Heights Teacher and Mentor, Alex Berthe, discusses the importance of proper praise in the moral development of boys. Our culture tends towards two extremes: we are either overly critical, or excessively flattering. Alex helps us walk the mean as we guide our sons to a solid confidence in our love for them, and in their rock solid understanding of their identity as sons of God.
9
Podcast
On Addressing Character Defects through Tough Love
featuring Joe CardenasOn Addressing Character Defects through Tough Love
As teachers, we sometimes succumb to the desire to be liked, or to the fear of being disliked, by our students. This disposition can cost our students one of the greatest benefits an education can offer: being called out for a consistent character flaw. If we don’t call these things to our boys’ attention, their dominant flaws may go unchecked, only to hurt them more in the long run. Joe Cardenas, Head of Mentoring at The Heights, offers his thoughts on how to show tough love through difficult corrections.
10
Podcast
Finding Mentors After College
featuring Pat KilnerFinding Mentors After College
Mr. Patrick Kilner ’97, a graduate of The Heights, former Heights teacher, Heights dad, and now Chairman of the Board of Directors to discusses his new book, Find Your Six: Stop Lead Generating and Start Building Influence. Whether you are in college or high school, a young professional or a seasoned veteran, this week’s conversation centers on something that is crucial for everyone: mentorship. This mentorship is something that we sometimes take for granted as Heights students, but what happens after The Heights, when your mentor is no longer hunting you...
11
Podcast
Dr. Mehan on The Odyssey, Mentors, and Humanitas
featuring Matt MehanDr. Mehan on The Odyssey, Mentors, and Humanitas
This week on HeightsCast Dr. Matt Mehan offers his thoughts on Homer’s Odyssey. In particular, Dr. Mehan focuses on the the first four books of the Odyssey and the arts of friendship and mentoring young men. Listen in for a concrete example of the contemporary applicability of the artes liberales.
12
Podcast
Dangerously Good: Forming Great Souls
featuring Alvaro de VicenteDangerously Good: Forming Great Souls
Where to begin with the lofty, almost nebulous virtue of magnanimity—what St. Thomas Aquinas called “stretching forth of the soul to great things”? Of course we want to raise great-souled children, who even outstrip us in their vision of the good and their commitment to serving it. But words alone will fail to impart such a personal and complex mission. At last April’s Fatherhood Conference at The Heights, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente tackled the challenge of how to teach magnanimity to our children. Following Fr. Carter Griffin’s keynote address, Mr....