January 3-5, 2024 • The Heights School • Potomac, MD
Cost: $150 • Scholarships available. For more information, contact nate@heightsforum.org
January 3-5, 2024 • The Heights School • Potomac, MD
Cost: $150 • Scholarships available. For more information, contact nate@heightsforum.org
Our Mission:
To assist professionals and college students as they explore a possible career in education and to initiate regular professional collaboration within a developing network of educators.
A teacher trains minds, forms hearts, and nurtures souls. Ideally, he is a guide in the pursuit of knowledge, an example of both intellectual and moral virtues, and a mentor in the quest for wisdom. He accompanies, instructs, exemplifies, and participates in the formation of his students. Such a call deeply resonates in the hearts of many men, all of whom are called to be teachers in one form or another. For some, the vocation to teach is also professional calling.
If you are considering pursuing a career as an educator, join us for two-and-a-half days of reflection and friendship designed to help you better understand what teaching is and whether you are called to it. Beyond merely hearing about teaching, the conference—hosted on the campus of The Heights School—will give you a real glimpse into the life of men who have dedicated their professional lives to the formation and education of young men fully alive in the liberal arts tradition.
Our aim is to assist professionals, and college and graduate students, as they explore a possible career in education. The conference, moreover, serves as an on-ramp for further professional collaboration within a developing network of aspiring educators.
Registration Cost: $150. Registration includes meals from Wednesday dinner through Friday lunch, along with printed materials for the conference.
The cost per participant of conferences of this nature often exceeds $1,000/participant. We are honored to provide this experience at the deeply discounted rate thanks to the generosity of donors who recognize the cultural importance of education and the teachers that provide it.
We recognize that even the discounted fee may surpass available funds in some cases. Please email nate@heightsforum.org if you wish to be considered for a full or partial scholarship.
For those coming from out of town who are interested in lodging options, a block of rooms will be made available at a nearby hotel, with shuttle service to The Heights each morning.
What is a vocation? Is that different from a profession? Just how far off the beaten track is a career in eduction?
A teacher forms, and most formation happens outside the classroom. How do I form hearts and train the will?
Schools ought to be schools for families, thus much of our best work is not in the classroom or even with the student, but rather with their parents. Explore this daunting but critical element of our profession.
What are the liberal arts really? Are the arts of liberty still needed for success in an increasingly virtual world?
How do I grow professionally? Do I really need an education degree? Is there another, better way? How would I know if this is the right career for me?
Is it financially possible to both raise a family and pursue this vocation? What do finances and family life look like in this profession? There are obvious pros and cons–we’ll talk about them both.
“One of the greatest pleasures in teaching comes from those hours when you feel that every word you say is being heard, not by a collection of bored and dutiful individuals, but instead by a group which you create and which in turn creates you; that, instead of repeating facts learnt by rote, to be telephoned through the drowsy air to half-dead ears and garbled down in notebooks, you are both stirring minds to ask questions and answering them; that you are being driven by the energy of the young on the search for truth, and drawing therefrom the power to lead the search; and, in fact, that you and your words and the class which listens and thinks are all part of the ceaseless activity of human Reason.”
– Gilbert Highet