The joy of “being known here” is not just for the students. When a faculty cultivates friendship, it benefits the entire school community.
Tom Cox has been a middle and upper school Latin and Greek teacher at The Heights since 2009. He also hosts The Forum Faculty Podcast, now in its second year, which gives a slice of teacher breakroom culture: the kinds of conversations, rapport, and friendship that are born of our shared work and life as teachers. Tom joins us today to talk about how important faculty friendship is to making a school into a community, and what schools can do to support the planned and unplanned interactions that feed friendship.
Chapters:
1:53 Tom Cox’s history at The Heights
6:35 School as a community of friends
10:15 Using school trips for faculty bonding
14:58 Regional schools: community or society
17:01 Creating community over large distances
26:53 Building up faculty friendship
36:04 Friendship requires shared life, work
47:09 Planned and unplanned interactions
50:49 Real communities pass on a culture
57:26 The fruit of staying in one place
Links:
“A Faculty of Friends” from Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst Township, Pennsylvania
Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox
The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis
Man and the State by Jacques Maritain
The World-Ending Fire Collection by Wendell Berry
True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness by John Cuddeback
“Charles” by Shirley Jackson
“The Work of Local Culture” in What Are People For? by Wendell Berry
Also on the Forum:
The Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox
Friendship and the 21st-Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente
Friendship for Fathers featuring John Cuddeback
On Friendship after Senior Year featuring David Maxham
Featured Opportunities:
Fathers’ Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025)
The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)