What Winston Churchill once said of buildings, we too can say of family culture. Namely, that we first shape it, and thereafter it shapes us. Indeed, this is especially true for our children, who are particularly impressionable. Whether it is the artwork in a classroom, a coach’s demeanor on the sports field, or that stack of books in the living room, our children notice and are formed by everything that surrounds them.

Although summer break is now in full swing, parenting has no vacations. Rather, in many ways parenting intensifies during the breaks, for it is during these times that our homes are perhaps most full. As such, now is a fitting moment to consider the culture we are creating in our homes. 

To this end, this week we revisit an episode from our archives. Based on a letter he sent to parents, in this episode, Mr. Alvaro de Vicente offers us seven ideas on how to foster a healthy and happy culture in the home: 

1. Have a Library at home.
2. Establish and protect order in common areas of your home.
3. Aim to have dinner together everyday.
4. Engineer one common conversation during dinner.
5. Dedicate a nightly time to family prayer.
6. Spend time with the elderly and lonely.
7. Give to charity.

As a school is like a boy’s second home, the home is his first school.  And it is in this school that we, as parents, can help him cultivate those virtues, which he will carry with him throughout his entire life--and, God willing, into the next.

Show Highlights

• Why family culture is an important part of your children’s formation
• More than mere words: what you do is often more important than what you say
• Is an orderly home an unrealistic goal?
• How to improve family dinner time
• Thoughts on how to build a family library on a budget
• Why a brief time of family prayer can be better than a long time
• How can we reform a family culture gone astray?
• It’s not about perfection, but its pursuit

Also on the Forum

Creating a Culture of Learning in the Home

20 Ways to Improve the Family Dinner

If the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the unexpected is to be expected. While certainly not always easy, we have also perhaps learned that the unexpected can be an invitation for adventure, if only we have the eyes to see it as such. Indeed, for many students around the country, the unexpected pandemic was a spur to the adventure of a gap year--or two.

Now, as many of our students will begin--or perhaps return--to college in the coming months, it is fitting that we revisit an old podcast, originally published in 2018, on life after high school.

In this episode, we sit down with Arthur Brooks, formerly the president of the American Enterprise Institute and currently a professor both at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, for a conversation about college and whether it is the right next step for every prep school graduate.  In the episode, Dr. Brooks:

1. Challenges the assumption that every prep school grad should attend college right away at any cost.
2. Offers fantastic insights about the entire college experience–from college choice, to choice of majors, to engagement with students and faculty who think differently.
3. Provides helpful guidance to families, as they prudentially discern what is best for each of their children. 

Now is a perfect time for us--parents, teachers, and students alike--to think more deeply about what college is for; and, indeed, what life is for. In this way, if college is in our son’s path, he may thus make the most of his education. And regardless of if college is in his path, he will thus know that this life is best spent refreshing the souls of others and glorifying God in his daily work.

Show Highlights

• Arthur’s story and what we can learn from his non-conventional path
• What is really needed to succeed: hard work and personal responsibility
• Should everyone study the liberal arts?
• Is the value of college purely economic?
• Why all colleges are not equal
• Busting the myth that college is for everyone
• What are prep schools preparing students for?
• The dangers of identity politics in education
• Seven rules for highly effective college students
• Why you should go where you are not welcomed
• How to be on missions, whether on a college campus or in the working world
• Dissolving the stigma around not going to college

Suggested Reading

The Conservative Heart

Gross National Happiness

Resources 

The Art of Happiness