At the heart of teaching is the desire to make an impact on the lives of one’s students. Beyond conveying useful information or training them in resume-building skills, great teachers wish to help their students live well—to be fully alive. Such a task, difficult as it may be, is what mentoring is all about.
Yet most schools may not have a formal mentoring program. In these circumstances, how can teachers, who wish to help their students in ways that go beyond math or language arts, mentor students?
To help us answer this question, we welcome back to HeightsCast our Head of Mentoring, Joe Cardenas, for a discussion on how teachers can mentor in schools without a formal mentoring program. In the episode, Joe explains what mentoring is and why it matters, offering guidance on how to be intentional, humble, and patient as teachers seek to help students not only see the good to be done but come to want to do the good they have seen.
Register for Joe’s Mentoring Workshop here.
For lyrics, translation, and history of Regina Caeli, please visit: https://adoremus.org/2007/09/singing-the-four-seasonal-marian-anthems/
Chapters
Also on the Forum
Foundations for Mentoring Struggling Students: On Fighting the Right Fires with David Maxham
Mentoring Sons to a Successful Summer with Joe Cardenas
Finding Mentors After Graduation: On Find Your Six with Pat Kilner
On Addressing Character Defects: Thoughts on Tough Love with Joe Cardenas
Why Boys Need Mentors with Joe Cardenas and Alex Berthe
“Education,” wrote G. K. Chesterton, “is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” If Chesterton is right, then education is about transmitting a culture, for what is culture if not the embodiment of a society’s soul? And what “soul” can be passed on from one human to another if it is not first embodied?
To discuss the importance of culture both to society generally and education specifically, we welcome to HeightsCast George Weigel, a distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a New York Times bestselling author. In the episode, Mr. Weigel speaks about Pope St. John Paul II’s “culture first” approach. Contrasting the late pope’s view with Marx’s view of economics as the primary driver of history and the Jacobin view of politics in the driver seat, Weigel explains the historical and philosophical roots of John Paul II’s view of culture as the driving force in history.
Along the way, he discusses what culture is and what education has to do with it.
Recommended Resources
Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel
John Paul II and the Priority of Culture by George Weigel
Also on the Forum
Family Culture with Alvaro de Vicente
Creating a Culture of Learning in the Home by Alvaro de Vicente
In schools today, Shakespeare is often taught superficially. Students attempt to grasp the plot with the aid of their teacher, who helps them through the difficult Elizabethan English. At best they learn something about the beautification of language and the cultural significance of the Bard. But his work is not taught as it was written to be understood, that is, sapientially, for growth in practical wisdom and the ability to see more clearly the nature of man and the man’s relationship with both fellow man and God.
This week on HeightsCast, we welcome back Dr. Matthew Mehan for a discussion of Shakespeare and the education of leaders. Associate Dean and Assistant Professor at Hillsdale’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government, Dr. Mehan helps us see that there is more to Shakespeare than is immediately apparent from a surface-level reading of his plays. He explains how a deep reading of the Bard offers a training in that nimbleness of mind—a good mother wit—without which, St. Thomas More said, all learning is half lame.
To do this, Dr. Mehan walks us through the opening of Hamlet, Act V. Not only does he offer an example of Shakespeare’s genius, he also gives an example of how to teach Shakespeare as not only aesthetically delightful but also morally instructive and useful—the ideal companion to theology and philosophy.
For educators interested in learning more about Shakespeare and how to teach him as a teacher of wisdom, check out the Forum’s summer workshop on Shakespeare.
Chapters
Also from the Forum
Why Our Politics Needs Poetry with Dr. Matthew Mehan
On Reading Literature by Joe Bissex
Five Fruits of a Poetic Education by Nate Gadiano
In Real Time: The Temporal Order of the Liberal Arts by Dr. Matthew Mehan
On Pieper’s Prudence: A Virtue for the Great Souled with Colin Gleason, Tom Cox, and Austin Hatch
In G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, he tells a sort of parable in which children are given space to play on a mountain top surrounded by steep precipices on all sides. At first the children are left to play on the mountain top without any walls. Fearful of falling off one of the edges, they all huddle up in the middle. Then, walls are erected, and the security that such walls provide gives the children the confidence they need to play without fear of falling.
A father’s loving presence can act like such walls in the lives of his children. Yet, at times, the practical realities of life make it difficult for fathers to be fully present in such a way.
This week on HeightsCasts, we feature a talk given by headmaster Alvaro de Vicente on the topic of paternal presence, originally offered at our recent fatherhood conference. Although there are no set manuals for successful parenting, in his talk Mr. de Vicente suggests four areas that fathers can consider as they examine the ways they may or may not be present in their children’s lives:
In the end, Alvaro encourages fathers to behave as they would wish their sons to behave when they reach their own age. But when they fail, he also reminds them of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s words: “God doesn't ask that we succeed in everything, but that we are faithfull.”.
Chapters
Also on the Forum
Friendship for Fathers: On Living and Teaching the Art with Prof. John Cuddeback
The Bedrock Principle of Fatherhood with Andy Reed
The Father and His Family: On Fatherhood with Michael Moynihan
Parenting from Fear: On Reasons for Confidence with Alvaro de Vicente
Parental Authority: On Our Role with Dr. Leonard Sax