The joy of "being known here" is not just for the students. When a faculty cultivates friendship, it benefits the entire school community.
Tom Cox has been a middle and upper school Latin and Greek teacher at The Heights since 2009. Tom also hosts The Forum Faculty Podcast, now in its second year, which gives a slice of teacher breakroom culture: the kinds of conversations, rapport, and friendship that are born of our shared work and life as teachers. Tom joins us today to talk about how important faculty friendship is to making a school into a community, and what schools can do to support the planned and unplanned interactions that feed friendship.
Chapters:
1:53 Tom Cox's history at The Heights
6:35 School as a community of friends
10:15 Using school trips for faculty bonding
14:58 Regional schools: community or society
17:01 Creating community over large distances
26:53 Building up faculty friendship
36:04 Friendship requires shared life, work
38:57 Facilitating that shared life
47:09 Planned and unplanned interactions
50:49 Real communities pass on a culture
57:26 The fruit of staying in one place
Links:
"A Faculty of Friends" from Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst Township, Pennsylvania
Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox
The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis
Man and the State by Jacques Maritain
The World-Ending Fire Collection by Wendell Berry
True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness by John Cuddeback
"Charles" by Shirley Jackson
"The Work of Local Culture" in What Are People For? by Wendell Berry
Also on the Forum:
The Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox
Friendship and the 21st-Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente
Friendship for Fathers featuring John Cuddeback
On Friendship after Senior Year featuring David Maxham
Featured Opportunities:
Fathers' Conference at The Heights School (November 1, 2025)
The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.