Bill Dardis on Teaching Religion with Multiple Faiths in the Room
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
Release Date: 02/12/2026
David Maxham on Struggling in Math: Where Digital Tools Can Assist in Academic Virtue
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
There’s a sea of online math supplements, from drills to games to whole courses, all promising advancement for your struggling student (or your stellar student who has outpaced his cohort). What kind of program, if any, is right for your student? Under what conditions are digital tools most effective? Heights math teacher David Maxham gives us an extremely practical guide to the best digital resources out there and how to use them effectively. He also shares the failure modes you may not see coming when “hiring” a digital tutor for your child. Chapters: 2:19 Digital tools at a liberal...
info_outline
Dr. Jonathan Buttaci on the Art and Act of Knowing—and What That Means for Teaching
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
by Dr. Andrew Abela, notes on a presentation by Dr. Jonathan Buttaci, papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIV by Josef Pieper by John Henry Newman Also on the Forum: by David Maxham featuring David Maxham featuring Tom Steenson by Michael Moynihan Featured Opportunities: Headmaster’s Lecture at The Heights School (October 3, 2026) – link coming soon at The Heights School (October 24, 2026) Fatherhood Conference at The Heights School (early November 2026) – link coming soon at The Heights School (November 11-13, 2026)
info_outline
Dr. Paul Shrimpton on Newman and his Idea of a School
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
The most famous work of our newest Doctor of the Church is, of course, The Idea of a University—a collection that explores the essence of a Catholic university education. But fewer people know about St. John Henry Newman’s extensive efforts in primary and secondary education: Newman’s part was not just as an educational theorist, but a school founder, who played every nitty-gritty role from fundraising to parent relations, from essay grading to student mentoring, even processing repair orders and playing second violin to fill out the little school’s orchestra. Dr. Paul Shrimpton...
info_outline
Alvaro de Vicente on Boy-Girl Socializing: Fostering Healthy Peer Groups
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
Statistics show that young people today are spending significantly less time socializing in face-to-face mixed company, across genders, than previous generations. This week on HeightsCast, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente looks at how we might assess and address boy-girl socialization for our sons, helping the modern boy to develop healthy relationships in the right context. Chapters: 2:46 “Normal” is not necessarily the measure 5:53 Healthy group dynamics 7:30 Growth comes in stages 12:12 The role of schools 19:25 The role of families 26:43 Manners and the virtue of charity 32:56 When to make...
info_outline
Austin Hatch and Tom Steenson on True Convivium: Friendship with Fellow Teachers
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
“Friendship is one of the most indispensable requirements of life,” says Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics. But, adds Alasdair MacInytre, it’s also “difficult and often enough impossible—especially under the conditions characteristic of contemporary modernity.” Today on HeightsCast, long-time colleagues (and friends!) Austin Hatch and Tom Steenson reflect on the nature of friendship, and why it was chosen as the theme for the , hosted by The Heights Forum this November. What is the value of friendships among fellow faculty? What are the ingredients of that friendship?...
info_outline
Michael Moynihan on Reducing Anxiety through the Meaning of Work
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
In the charged “Achievement Culture” we live in today, both parent and student anxiety have skyrocketed. There are the usual culprits, from a changing economic landscape to social media and comparison culture. But ultimately, Michael Moynihan believes our professional and academic anxieties come from a crisis of meaning for the term ‘work.’ Drawing on his experience as a math teacher, head of the upper school at The Heights, and father of a large family, Mr. Moynihan suggests that we can reduce anxiety by understanding ‘work’ not as a means of self-optimization or self-advancement,...
info_outline
Eric Heil on an Introduction to Natural History: Beauty, Science, and Philosophy for Boys
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
Natural History is a largely outdoor, discovery-based class for our lower school students, where they see the Valley as a textbook and the seasons as its chapters. Eric Heil has taught Natural History to his third graders for decades now, and in this rebroadcast from 2021, he unpacks the class’s lessons of close observation, pattern recognition, scientific inquiry, identification, wonder, and the foundations of philosophy—all among 8- to 11-year-olds. Chapters: 3:10 Personal observation and discovery 5:35 The outdoors: an alternative textbook 9:55 Boys and nature journals 19:49 Intrinsic...
info_outline
Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti on Theology and Masculinity: Men’s Creation and Calling
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
Our headmaster often uses this paradigm for the ideal Heights graduate: he’s the kind of young man you’d want your daughter to marry. In a recent article for the Forum, Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti asked: in our current culture, how does a boy grow up to be the kind of man who desires that life? Delving into Church sources, both scriptural and magisterial, he has assembled the outline of a theology of masculinity. Responding to Pope St. John Paul II’s description of the “feminine genius,” Dr. Lanzilotti considers the prospect of a complementary “masculine genius,” and what it...
info_outline
Mark Grannis on Knowing How to Know: Law School and Other Professional Discernments
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
by Mark Grannis , online lectures featuring Mark Grannis by Mark Grannis by Mark Grannis featuring Fr. Michael Himes Also on the Forum: featuring Rob Liotta, Mark Grannis, and Josue Zelaya on the Forum Faculty Podcast featuring Fr. Carter Griffin and Alvaro de Vicente featuring Mark Grannis by Mark Grannis Featured Opportunities: at The Heights School (November 11-13, 2026)
info_outline
Alvaro de Vicente on Crafting and Sharing a School Vision
HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive
This year’s Heights Forum Art of Teaching Boys Conference brought together motivated educators from across the country (and beyond) to discuss a new vision for boys’ education. The overwhelming follow-up questions: How can I craft and communicate a new vision back at my school? How does a school community grow united in its vision and sense of mission? This week on HeightsCast, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offers his advice, first, for building a substantial and specific vision, and second, for translating that vision into action as a school community. In the notes below, you can...
info_outline“Charity and clarity” are the lodestars when teaching middle school boys with various faith backgrounds—and who are developing faith dispositions of their own.
Bill Dardis teaches middle school religion and eighth grade core at The Heights. In his sixteen years of experience, he’s navigated many tricky waters with the boys, with the ultimate goal to bring them into a deeper and more engaged relationship with faith.
Chapters:
3:19 Inviting boys deeper into their faith
8:17 A religion teacher has to pray
9:16 Following student questions
11:27 Charity: respecting parents’ moral authority
12:32 Clarity: commitment to the truth
13:28 Avoiding relativism
17:17 Emphasizing essential questions
18:37 Persuasive common ground
25:21 Seeing the familiar as if for the first time
27:30 One, holy, catholic, and apostolic
31:45 When a student’s life situation conflicts with the Catechism
37:59 Loving the job
Links:
The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton (seeing something familiar as if for the first time)
Becoming Greece, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox
Becoming Rome, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox
Also on the Forum:
Forming Men of Faith by Alvaro de Vicente
Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic Education: On the Adventure of Truth featuring Dr. Joseph Lanzilotti
Leaving Room for the Holy Spirit by Mark Grannis
“The Talk”: On the Role of Schools and Fathers featuring Michael Moynihan
Featured Opportunities:
Fathers Series for Fathers of Current Students at The Heights School (February 2026)
The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)