Tom Cox on Being a Faculty of Friends: Making Schools into Communities

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)