Category: HeightsCast

In this week’s episode, we discuss science fiction with Mr. Joe Breslin, fifth grade teacher and soon-to-be published author of Other Minds: 13 Tales of Wonder and Sorrow. Surveying the wide umbrella of literature and film termed “sci-fi,” Mr. Breslin helps us understand what makes this genre of literature valuable, interesting, and beautiful. As Mr. Breslin explains, science fiction done well offers a celebration of the human person, showing us in often strange ways what is possible for us as thinking beings. Moreover, by removing us from the humdrum of our…

From the boys’ choir in the lower school to the men’s chorus in the upper school, informal performances at faculty dinners to songs at the annual Maryland Day Gala, singing echoes throughout the whole of The Heights experience. This week, we sit down with Mr. Patrick Love, music teacher at The Heights since 2004, to discuss not only when and where we sing at The Heights but why we love to sing so much. As you’ll hear, singing—broadly understood—is at the heart of our school’s mission. Cantare amantis est, St. Augustine tells us:…

The problem with science education today is not that it is too scientific at the expense of being philosophic or Christian. The problem is that it is not scientific enough such that it has often become dogmatic rather than data-driven.    This week on HeightsCast we talk with upper school head Michael Moynihan about a new initiative of his on the Forum: the Initiative for the Renewal of Science Education. In the episode, Michael discusses the need for a new synthesis in the liberal arts, combining the best of modern…

In this week’s episode, we talk with headmaster Alvaro de Vicente about a central theme from our faculty workshop: self-mastery. As Alvaro explains, self-mastery is a certain integration of action, words, thoughts, and desires that gives one the interior freedom to not only do the good but to want to do the good. What does this self-mastery look like for teachers, for students, and for parents? How do we help our boys develop self-mastery? What is the role of a school in assisting parents with this great endeavor? As man is…

In this week’s episode we discuss fights. Most boys, especially at a young age, have a beautiful need for rough and tumble physical play. But what happens when it’s not play? What happens when egos are insulted and the fists go up? Or when there’s an unjust aggression? At what point is a young lad–or an older one–justified in puttin’ up his dukes? Teacher and Coach, Kyle Blackmer, gives us some points for consideration as we coach our sons on the use of physical force. In the end, this is…

In many quarters of contemporary society, busy-ness has become a sort of cliche greeting. To the question “How are you?”, the response, “So busy,” is often automatic. To borrow the words of Dr. R.J. Snell, many of us are conspicuously busy; and we wear our busy-ness as a sort of badge of honor, rooting our worth in our work. In last week’s episode, we talked with Dr. Snell about work and acedia. This week, we round out that episode with a discussion of what is ultimately the point of work, namely leisure. While we…

A certain distinguished school leader, when asked when he would retire from his work, replied, “the day that I wake up and do not want to go to work.” A reply such as this perhaps strikes the modern ear as senseless. For many of us, work fills the greater portion of our daily lives, but do we feel ourselves thereby fulfilled? Especially today, we may often feel trapped in what seem like unspectacular sisyphean cycles. This week, R. J. Snell, editor-in-chief of Public Discourse and director of the Center on the University and Intellectual Life…

This episode features Mr. Michael Moynihan’s lecture at last year’s Teaching Vocation Conference. Our Upper School Head shares why a liberal arts education is needed more today than in times past. And the reasons are not simply that classics majors can code too. To the contrary, an authentic liberal education gives us not only truth, but also a ground upon which to stand. Many of our current social crises are rooted precisely in such a poverty: we mistrust much of our ability to know, and consequently we don’t know much…

In last week’s episode, we considered how beauty is a special combination of order and surprise. To behold beauty, we learned, is to contemplate the dynamism of a being on the way to its perfection. It is to see the rose emerging from its seed.  This week we talk with assistant headmaster, Tom Royals, about learning to see the beauty—albeit often messy beauty—of our own growing children. To be sure, in this adventure, we may find more surprise than order. Nevertheless, in learning to see our children with loving eyes,…

It sounds nice to say, using Dostoevsky’s words, that beauty will save the world. But is this claim true? If so, in what sense is it true? What even is beauty? And what would it mean for it to save the world? This week, we welcome Dr. Lionel Yaceczko back to HeightsCast to discuss beauty: what it is and what the Western tradition can tell us about it. Today’s episode is rooted in a previous discussion we had with Dr. Yaceczko, in which he spoke with us about Western civilization….