All the first universities were—St. Thomas Aquinas would tell us—Catholic ones. But in this modern day, it takes intentionality to maintain the rich tradition of Catholic education.

In a talk recorded for HeightsCast, Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, president of The Catholic University of America, spoke to families at The Heights about what it means to be a Catholic university. He first consults the experts: Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, John Paul the Great, and Pope Benedict XVI. He then offers examples from his own career in school leadership, and how to put the exhortations of popes and saints into action on campus.

6:14 Universities: a Catholic inheritance

8:06 Newman and Aquinas on universities

11:58 Papal directives for Catholic universities

15:56 Theodrama vs. egodrama

19:16 Getting these ideas on campus

19:36 Mission-enthusiastic faculty

21:26 Mission-integrated curricula

24:12 Counseling with a Christian anthropology

25:01  Teaching a professional call to holiness

26:21 Campus ministry

28:15 The distinctive value of Catholic education

31:10 Q1: Technology and the next 50 years

36:13 Q2: College affordability and value

The Idea of a University by St. John Henry Newman

Ex Corde Ecclesiae by Pope St. John Paul II

Regensburg Address on Faith, Reason, and the University by Pope Benedict XVI

“The Real Cost of College Education—for Students, Families, and the Nation” by Jamie Merisotis

Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew Abela

Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth by Catherine Pakaluk

Receiving Beauty: A Liberal Arts Education featuring Dr. George Harne

Considerations for the College-Bound Student featuring Dr. Peter Kilpatrick

The Idea of the Liberal Arts University, Part I featuring Dr. Thomas Hibbs

Rethinking College: Why go? How? When? featuring Arthur Brooks

Advent invites us to reflect on our Christian disposition, oriented towards peace, hope, joy, and love. St. Josemaría Escrivá was known to summarize that disposition by calling it, simply… “simple.” In The Way, he praises the apostles and St. Joseph for imitating Jesus himself in being simple. And then he exhorts us: “May you not lack simplicity.”

Heights faculty Joe Cardenas and Nate Gadiano join us this week to explore the Christian meaning of “simplicity,” beginning with the ways that God is simple: unified, sincere, essential, and wholly true. As we strive to reflect his example, how do we find that interior disposition of simplicity? And how can we help our boys find it too?

3:07 A Catholic sense of simplicity

10:13 Moving beyond “minimalism”

18:38 Simplicity in Scripture

20:43 Social simplicity

24:12 As opposed to duplicity

26:08 How spiritual direction simplifies you

30:36 A unity of purpose

32:39 Distinct from feelings-based “honesty”

39:02 Helping our boys as parents, mentors

41:41 A boy’s insecurity, overcome by trust

47:38 Secure in divine filiation

The Way, Furrow, and The Forge by St. Josemaría Escrivá

The Virtues Playlist on The Heights Forum

“The air of Narnia had been working upon him … and all his old battles came back to him, and his arms and fingers remembered their old skill. He was King Edmund once more.”

In this week’s wide-ranging discussion, Dr. Jason Baxter talks about fellow Medievalist C. S. Lewis’s ideas of story and history—and how those ideas matter for the education and formation of a thoroughly modern people. What can today’s “classical revival movements” learn from Lewis?

3:56 C. S. Lewis’s library

6:31 His theory of stories: mining ancient jewels

14:49 His theory of history: a post-Christian world

17:14 Modern man’s trouble with pre-modern texts

20:09 Embracing modernity and tradition

25:45 Making virtue attractive

33:49 How to “teach” a passion

42:45 Why a new translation of Dante

49:51 Wounded by beauty

jasonmbaxter.com featuring articles and lectures

Beauty Matters, Substack for Jason Baxter

The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind by Jason Baxter

The Divine Comedy: Inferno translated by Jason Baxter

Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College

A Doctor, a Lawyer, and a Cop Walk into a Boys School, episode two of Heights Forum Faculty Podcast

What Fiction Is For featuring Joe Breslin

Inferno or Paradiso? On Introducing Students to the Divine Comedy featuring Jason Baxter

In this episode we feature a lecture from Heights Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, at the last Art of Teaching conference. In the talk, Colin explores the concept of “unanxious leadership” in the classroom, emphasizing the importance of teachers maintaining a calm, grounded presence. He explains that anxiety often arises when teachers feel they are in constant conflict with students or struggling to control the classroom. Colin encourages teachers to adopt a mindset of humility and vulnerability, rather than relying on rigid authority or defensiveness, which fosters trust and respect. By focusing on building genuine relationships and being a “storyteller” rather than an “actor,” teachers can create a classroom where students feel seen, valued, and understood.

Colin also stresses the importance of fairness in discipline. He warns against using authority as a tool for domination and suggests a “double correction” strategy—addressing conflicts with two students by fairly acknowledging the role each one played in the dispute. He emphasizes that fairness, empathy, and thoughtful reflection can help reduce anxiety for both teachers and students. Colin believes that teachers must trust that students are genuinely trying to do their best, even in difficult moments, and that recognizing this effort is key to fostering a positive classroom environment.

Finally, Colin highlights the value of informal, outside-the-classroom interactions in building strong teacher-student relationships. By spending time with students outside of lessons—whether through casual conversations or attending their extracurricular activities—teachers show that they care about their students as individuals. This personal investment creates a sense of connection that enhances both academic and personal growth. Ultimately, Colin argues that an “unanxious classroom” is shaped by teachers who lead with humility, compassion, and a focus on positive relationships, transforming both the teaching experience and the overall learning environment.

How do we justify reading? Do we justify reading?

Heights fifth grade teacher and published fiction author Joe Breslin chases away such questions. Though fiction can have utility, even moral impact—fiction at its best is an art created and received with wonder. In this fascinating conversation, Mr. Breslin reflects on writing, reading, and gets us to the heart of what it actually means to do something “for its own sake.”

3:50 Do we read for utility?

7:49 Fiction: pursued for its own sake

11:43 Whether fiction has a moral purpose

18:57 Fiction writing is not essay writing

23:03 Good art ends up reflecting God

26:09 Defining “good for its own sake”

28:23 The tension between education and encounter

34:04 A parent’s role in sharing fiction

38:07 The human impulse for literature

Hearts Uncanny: Tales of the Unquiet Spirit by Joe Breslin

Other Minds: 13 Tales of Wonder and Sorrow by Joe Breslin

joeybreslinwrites.com Joe Breslin’s author website

“Ethics of Elfland” by G. K. Chesterton

Leisure: The Basis of Culture Josef Pieper

“The Loss of the Creature” by Walker Percy

Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente’s substack featuring original articles

What Should a Catholic University Be? at The Heights School (December 7, 2024)

The Forum Book Reviews, many written by Joe Breslin

A surprising number of Catholic conversions in the last hundred years begin with one man: G. K. Chesterton. A modern Catholic favorite, Chesterton looms large in subjects as diverse as theology, satire, marginalia, philosophy, politics, and mystery fiction.

Our guest today is Dale Ahlquist, founder and president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. His own journey of conversion started with Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. In our conversation, we visit many of Chesterton’s ideas, concluding with the much misunderstood “distributism”—a Chestertonian practical philosophy and the subject of Ahlquist’s co-edited book of essays titled Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching.

1:53 Conversion by way of Chesterton

6:17 Chesterton: a “complete thinker”

8:16 Reading recommendations

12:05 The opening of Everlasting Man

13:56 The ending of Man Who Was Thursday

17:16 Fairy tales and fundamental truths

19:18 “The twitch upon the thread”

22:27 Defining distributism, or localism

30:13 Localism for D.C. (sub)urbanites

33:44 Founding schools: localism in action

39:11 Family enterprises

42:19 The contributors to Localism

45:31 Creating a life of localism where you are

Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching edited by Dale Ahlquist and Michael Warren Davis

The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist

Common Sense 101: Lessons from G. K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

St. Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

St. Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G. K. Chesterton

“The Roots of the World” by G. K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton

Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente’s substack featuring original articles

What Should a Catholic University Be? at The Heights School (December 7, 2024)

Episode 1: The Homework Problem, newly launched Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox featuring round-table discussions with veteran teachers

The task of fatherhood is critical, dynamic—and daunting. How could one address hope to address it all? During the Fatherhood Conference at The Heights School this month, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente boiled it down to this: God chose this for you. You are called. Accepting this simple starting point should give fathers the confidence to take on the role, and the humility to seek God’s grace while doing so.

3:02 Fatherhood as vocation

9:20 Vocation as your position on the team

12:09 The mission: bring your family to heaven

13:29 Fatherhood is a partnership with God

16:07 A father’s example of piety and virtue

27:06 Offering our children direct guidance

30:37 Offering them our time

34:05 Witnessing to the world

36:54 Being open to God’s grace

40:41 Messy is fine

45:20 You’re the man for the job

Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente’s substack featuring original articles

Pastoral Letter on New Evangelization, 2 October 2011 by Javier Echevarría, former prelate of Opus Dei

Christ Is Passing By by Josemaría Escrivá

“In Joseph’s Workshop” by Josemaría Escrivá

The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

Episode 1: The Homework Problem, newly launched Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox featuring round-table discussions with veteran teachers

On Emotional Presence and Imperfect Parenting featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Paternal Presence featuring Alvaro de Vicente

The Father and His Family featuring Michael Moynihan

What is beauty? Is it definable? What is it for, how are we drawn to it—and why do we sometimes resist it?

This week we welcome Dr. George Harne, president of Christendom College and an accomplished medieval and music history scholar. Drawing on his perspective as head of a vibrant Catholic liberal arts college, he speaks to us about the liberal arts as a path of study driven by beauty and contemplation, in pursuit of a true vision of reality.

2:02 Liberal arts: what free people study

5:51 Versus “humanities” or “classical education”

7:46 Why study them

9:43 Music as a liberal art, fine art, liturgical art

13:16 Teaching art and contemplation

18:24 Defining contemplation

21:21 Contemplating music

24:45 Music with our family

28:19 Receiving beauty objectively, subjectively

29:42 Beauty under suspicion today

34:24 A Catholic liberal arts education

Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

The Arts of the Beautiful by Etienne Gilson

Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)

The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

Episode 1: The Homework Problem, newly launched Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox featuring round-table discussions with veteran teachers

Defining the Liberal Arts featuring Dr. Matthew Mehan

Order and Surprise: On Beauty and the Western Tradition featuring Dr. Lionel Yaceczko

Why a Liberal Arts Education Today featuring Michael Moynihan

The Idea of the Liberal Arts University featuring Dr. Thomas Hibbs