According to Aristotle (and Aquinas and others), the human person is essentially rational and social; man thinks, and he thinks best in the context of friendship. As such, at the very heart of man’s education ought to be learning to write effectively, for good writing is thought clarified and beautified which can be shared with others. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, however, seem to pose a formidable challenge to teachers who wish to help their students grow in this most human of crafts.
To help us think through how we as teachers should approach this challenge, this week on HeightsCast we welcome Dr. Matthew Mehan, Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of Government for Hillsdale’s Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government on Capitol Hill.
Despite the risks and challenges associated with it, Dr. Mehan argues that teachers should not abandon the at-home long essay. Indeed, as he points out, the creativity and thoughtfulness required by teachers who still wish to utilize the at-home essay, while mitigating the risks of cheating, may even make them better at their own art. As it becomes increasingly easier for a student to cheat his way through simplistic prompts and an outcome-focused approach to writing, teachers must now think more deeply about the kinds of written assignments they give their students and the process they use to guide them along the way.
All this extra effort is well worth it. As Dr. Mehan reminds us: “If you cannot order your thoughts beautifully and rationally, cogently and powerfully, in writing, you cannot clarify your own thinking, nevermind then share that thinking in the most brilliant and candid way.”
Chapters
0:55 Introduction
4:00 Artificial intelligence and teaching the craft of writing
7:20 Are at-home assignments worth the risk of cheating?
14:00 The real good of teaching writing
15:45 Strategies for mitigating cheating
19:30 The importance of writing to thinking and socializing
20:55 Imitation and the art of writing
21:50 More strategies
25:40 Summary of strategies for mitigating risk
Pre-conversations
Discussion of thesis statement
Pre-writing process
Refining your prompts
Imitation and style
27:00 A new era in education?
30:25 Will AI alter language more fundamentally?
31:50 Some ideas for essay prompts
37:12 Love, fear, and the stealing of ideas: the ethics of AI
44:05 Can AI really know anything?
46:15 How AI can make us better teachers
48:00 Cite your sources: the limitation of ChatGPT as a research tool
52:22 In-class vs. at-home essays
Also on the Forum
Writing from the Sentence Up by Joe Breslin
5 Don’ts and Dos When Teaching Writing by Joe Breslin
On Writing: A Personal Reflection by Michael Ortiz
Splashing in Puddles: Finding the Creative Writing Flow by Joe Bissex
Why Our Politics Needs Poetry with Dr. Matthew Mehan
In a culture where autonomy is often pursued as an ideal, it’s not surprising to learn that America is also experiencing a so-called loneliness epidemic. Together with loneliness, depression is also on the rise—a correlation that makes sense, given man’s nature as a social animal.
What is the solution to these problems? While there is perhaps no panacea, there is a particularly important starting point: the intergenerational family.
This week, we explore the idea of “intergenerational human flourishing” with Fr. Robert Gahl, long-time professor at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome, Italy, who was recently appointed Associate Professor in the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.
In this episode, Fr. Bob weaves research from several disciplines—sociology, philosophy, theology, and neuroscience—together with his own personal and pastoral experience. All the data point to the same fact: if they are to flourish, our sons need to know themselves to be part of a bigger story which includes relationships with parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. Such strong intergenerationality will give our boys a sense that life is a total gift.
Our job as educators, then, is to free young people from an individualistic solipsism, in part by helping them discover the role they are created to play in an intergenerational ecosystem.
Chapters
3:30 Introduction: intergenerational human flourishing
4:55 Human flourishing
10:15 Intergenerationality
12:45 Protagonists of a story
17:30 The role of grandparents
22:30 Family in different cultures
27:05 Attachment and independence in the home
31:15 Cause for hope
37:15 Heroism transmitted in the home
42:15 Fr. Bob’s work at the Busch School
Mentioned in the episode
The Human Flourishing Program, directed by Tyler VanderWeele
Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI
Master of Science in Ecclesial Administration and Management at the Busch School of Business
Also from the Forum
Shaping Your Son’s Moral Imagination with Alvaro de Vicente
Be careful that in encouraging a grade, you don’t shortchange growth; for a grade ought to be a means to growth, helping students—and their parents—see where they are so they can know where to go. Ideally, grades are the beginning of a conversation about what lies underneath the surface: the “why” beneath the “what”.
In today’s episode, Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente guides us through a nuanced discussion on how parents can understand, interpret, and respond to their sons’ grades while nurturing strong and lasting bonds. Acknowledging that grades serve as a judgment of the quality of a young man’s work at a given time, Mr. de Vicente sheds light on strategies to decipher the meaning behind the letters and numbers. Is it a problem of time, habits, or effort? Is it a helpful indicator of aptitude?
Regardless of the cause or cure, Alvaro reminds us that even more important than helping to raise a grade, is strengthening the bond parents have with their son.
Chapters
2:30 Defining grades
3:30 Grades: more than a necessary evil
5:00 How parents should approach grades
7:28 Digging into the “why” behind a grade
9:35 Elements of a grade: intelligence, time, habits, effort
14:45 Optimal Work and grades
16:55 Why boys need to own their grades
21:00 Evolving relationship with grades
24:00 Growth over grades
26:00 Respecting a school’s professional competence
29:35 What your tone communicates
36:35 Internal motivation
40:00 How to reframe as a parent
Recommended Resources
Punished by Rewards? from The Golden Hour Podcast
Also on the Forum
Handling Poor Grades: Steps to an Academic Reset with Michael Moynihan
Grinders Aren’t Heroes: On Student Motivation by Dave Fornaciari and Michael Hude
Motivation: Encouraging Reluctant Students by Tom Cox
“The mind,” Plutarch wrote, “is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” The teacher's job, then, is not so much transferring data about the world from his mind to the students, but leading them to fall in love with the world that they see as good. The same is true for preparing teachers: what is needed is to light a fire.
There is no better man to light such a fire for the teaching vocation than Heights Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente. In this week’s episode, Mr. de Vicente addresses the attendees of the 2022 Teaching Vocation Conference, introducing them to teaching as a vocation and a profession. He offers his thoughts on what it means for work to be a vocation, what it means for work to be a profession, and why it is that teachers are called to work that is both a profession and a vocation. Finally, our headmaster shares his thoughts on how we can tell whether the classroom is for us, or rather, whether we have been made for the classroom.
Chapters
3:05 Introduction to the topic
4:07 What is teaching?
7:52 Out of intellectual ignorance, but also moral ignorance
12:55 Every school teaches morality
16:00 What is a vocation?
22:35 The vocation of a teacher
27:18 Not a bad audience: you, your pupils, your friends, God
29:30 The need for teachers
30:10 The field of life
32:15 The need for male teachers
32:35 Discerning the teaching vocation
Also on the Forum
Guidance for Aspiring Teachers with Alvaro de Vicente
On Preparation for Teaching: Six Attributes of Great Teachers with Colin Gleason
Why Teach? An Introduction to the Teaching Vocation with Rich Moss
The Art of Teaching with Rich Moss