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HeightsCast

On Pieper’s Prudence: A Virtue for the Great-Souled

Lower School Head Colin Gleason leads a discussion with Tom Cox and Austin Hatch on Prudence, as presented by Josef Pieper. Often we understand this virtue as nothing more than a cunning tactic, when in reality, prudence is far more. The virtue encompasses a capacity for silence, a understanding of reality, and an ability to make right decisions. Prudence is a virtue for the magnanimous. Listen in to learn more.

Resources Mentioned in Podcast:

The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper

Tell All The Truth But Tell It Slant, Emily Dickinson

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II Section I, Aristotle

On the Futility of Halfway Measures, Letter XXII, Seneca

Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper

Only The Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation, Josef Pieper

Summa Theologica, Second Part of Second Part, Question 53, St. Thomas Aquinas

Compass: A Handbook on Parent Leadership, Jim Stenson

About the Authors

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.

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Austin Hatch

Ninth Grade Core, History of Western Thought, Jackson Scholars Senior Thesis
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Tom Cox

Chief Editor

Tom Cox teaches Latin and Greek in the Upper School at The Heights, where he has taught since 2009. Having earned his B.A. in Classics at Hillsdale, he completed a Master’s Degree in 2019 in the Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD.

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