This week's column is a tribute to the late Susana Trilling, a chef and a real teacher. Her classroom was a spacious teaching kitchen in Oaxaca, which inspired The Grauer School's teaching kitchen, and also inspired the world. Her lectures came through stories, scents, and presence.

Last week, Dr. Grauer introduced the rise of super-efficient, AI-driven SAT prep tools. This week, he is taking that idea much further—into the realm of character, empathy, and purpose. If we can gamify test prep for optimal motivation, why not human growth and spirit?

What do SATs, artificial intelligence, and a cartoon panda have in common? Two of education’s hottest topics—college prep and artificial intelligence—collide in this personal trip through the emerging world of adaptive learning. Education is changing.

Dr. Grauer rediscovers "expeditionary epistemology"—the idea that the whole of life can be viewed through the education. Through the lens of classic films, he explores the real core of education, and why these lessons might hold the most hopeful answers to today’s challenges in schools.

This week, Dr. Grauer celebrates National Banjo Day, honoring the joy of the old-time tradition of making music by hand, and keeping this heritage alive. To study our heritage is fundamental to what educators and schools are charged with doing with a rising generation.

What happens when school leaders feel they can’t speak their passionate beliefs freely—even while teaching banned books? In an age of political tension and self-censorship, this piece explores the quiet dilemmas facing educators.

At The Grauer School, and any great school, dance and exercise isn’t just art—it’s a powerful form of learning even if it often stays in the shadows. Learn not just how dance is transforming students’ minds, bodies, and spirits—but why joy might be the most radical lesson of all.

Our strongest memories of school often aren’t about tests or class lessons—they're about the moments and encounters that shaped us: a teacher who saw something in us before we did, or the unspoken codes of status and survival. What do you remember?