Skip to content
HeightsCast

On Manners: The “ABCs” of Virtue

Please, thank you, after you… Do manners matter? Are they artifice or virtue?

In this rebroadcast from 2019, lower school head Colin Gleason shares how manners can be the building blocks to a richer moral life—the habituation of virtue. He then offers practical advice for families and schools to help even young boys strengthen their “moral muscle” through manners that matter.

Chapters:

1:34 Why start in the lower school

3:12 Manners: artifice or virtue?

5:34 Orienting them towards the needs of others

10:06 Manners that matter

13:31 Social manners for small children

17:57 Intergenerational social experiences

21:30 Coaching in advance

27:23 Our example

Also on the Forum:

Manners: The Art of Happiness by Robert Greving

Manners Make (More Than) the Man, review of A Gentleman in Moscow by Robert Greving

Featured Opportunities:

Mustard Seed Communities, donations for Jamaica hurricane relief

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

About the Author

Colin Gleason

Head of Lower School, The Heights School

Colin Gleason serves as Head of the Lower School at The Heights, where he graduated in 1999. After college, he returned to his alma mater where he has taught a variety of classes: 3rd Grade Homeroom; Natural History; Chess; Storytelling; and currently, Moral Theology in the Upper School. He served four years as the Director of Admissions before taking on his current position as Head of the Lower School in 2010, overseeing his beloved Valley where he began as a student. Colin has also served as the Head Varsity Soccer Coach since 2010, and has been named Coach of the Year by the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and All Met Coach of the Year by the Washington Post. During the summer, Colin directs The Heights Soccer Camp and The Dangerous Camp for Boys. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Washington and Lee University and a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University. He and his wife, Nicole, and their five children live in Kensington.

Learn More

Subscribe to The Heights Forum Newsletter

Name(Required)
I'm interested in content for...
Select if you'd like to receive a monthly newsletter specifically for any of these educator roles.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.