Category: HeightsCast

Dr. Cal Newport joins us for Part II of his interview on Forming Deep Workers. What does a middle or high school deep worker look like? Cal Newport discusses APs, Classroom Tech, College Admissions, and more. 

This podcast features Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, and How to Be a High School Superstar. Dr. Newport, a Computer Science professor at Georgetown University, has a strong following in The Heights community, as his notions of deep work jive perfectly with our attempts to raise contemplative sons and competent professionals.

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.

Join Mr. Tom Longano for part two of his series on raising readers. He provides guidance here for refining the reading habits of two diametrically opposed categories of readers. No silver bullets, just points for consideration and reflection. Also, insights into Mr. Longano’s personal journey towards a love of reading.

“Have a great summer!” We hear it and say it incessantly, but what are we actually wishing for our boys? 21st Century America gives boys 3 months off–that is one quarter of the year and an enormous amount of time. Join Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, for a discussion of three ways that boys can fill their summer with healthy leisure and positive growth.

Can a 20 second prayer transform your day? How about your son’s? Heights teacher and author, Michael Ortiz, discusses how a century old norm of piety–the Morning Offering–allows us to renew each and every day while placing our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings on the altar. Our guest this episode is Mr. Michael Ortiz, longtime Heights teacher and recipient of three National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. Michael had his children’s novel, Swan Town: The Secret Journal of Susanna Shakespeare, published in 2006, and in this episode, discusses the topic…

In this episode, we talk to Mr. Tom Longano, a lower school teacher at The Heights School, about how to foster a love of reading in our sons and students.  The conventional approach of commanding, exhorting, cajoling, and bribing might not be the best way.

Continuing last week’s lecture on the Moral Imagination, in this episode Mr. de Vicente turns his attention to the ways in which parents and educators can cultivate the moral imagination of their sons and students.  Neither beasts nor boulders of marble, he explains how a proper approach to education must be rooted in an understanding of man’s freedom; that is, it ought to be neither mere training nor external sculpting. As the Japanese proverb goes, vision without action is a daydream; action without vision, a nightmare.  If last week’s segment…

The moment that each of us was born, we stepped into what Chesterton referred to as the supreme adventure of life.  To be born, he wrote, is to enter a sort of fairy tale, from which follows certain important questions.  What are the rules?  How does this world work?  Who are the good characters and who are the bad ones?  What is the plot?  Most importantly, who am I in this story?  In this week’s episode, we bring you the first part of a lecture delivered by Mr. Alvaro de…

Prof. Eddie Smith, former Heights faculty and long time history teacher at American University, shares a few moments with us on Frederick Douglass to prepare listeners for Saturday night’s Heights Lecture. Who was Frederick Douglass and how did he, a liberated slave, so dramatically change the course of American history? Enjoy this HeightsCast recorded in Hoban’s Pub in Washington D.C.