Dr. Grauer's Column - RootedAI: Panda Prepping for College and Life

RootedAI: Panda Prepping for College and Life
By Stuart Grauer

Many among us have found standardized test prep to be reductive or wasteful compared to a more experiential approach to life and learning. It can flatten kids into numbers and lead them down long roads with narrow purpose. But the new wave of artificially intelligent college prep testing—as I covered in my column last week—is something different. Personalized and adaptive, it can sharpen the mind, build clarity, and strengthen reasoning and motivation. This is worth paying attention to.

Here’s why—and it has nothing to do with the SATs:
We now have a technology that enables us to program the facts and data surrounding not just test prep, but virtually any growth area we choose. We can gamify almost any field of human development and use those games to achieve learning efficiencies rarely seen in human history. If AI is landing in schools, I hope this is where it docks.

Just as I was writing this, the President signed an executive order: “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth.” It’s the most sweeping AI education directive the nation has seen. It calls for early AI exposure in schools, professional development for teachers, and a nationwide AI challenge to engage young minds.

I raise this point with an ulterior question:
The question is no longer whether this technology will shape the future of learning (it already is—think SAT prep and language drilling). The real question is:
Can we shape AI into something humane, regenerative, and expansive enough to grow not just minds, but character and purpose?

That’s where what I call RootedAI comes in.

What if?
SAT prep is just a benchmark, a tactic—not a life purpose. What if we used the same AI-enhanced technologies behind SAT prep and Duolingo to assess student optimism—and then actually taught or trained for it?

What if we empowered AI to nurture empathy? Courage? Kindness? Sensitivity to the natural world? Our deepest values?

Short answer: We can. And in some cases, we already are.
Here are a few gamified AI programs currently being developed. They integrate high-efficiency biofeedback to accelerate learning. I haven’t personally tried these and do not endorse them—they’re simply examples worth looking into:

1. Empathy: Three AI-driven programs aim to build emotional intelligence by connecting classrooms globally, offering real-time emotional feedback, and providing validated measures of empathy for both students and teachers.
2. Optimism and Resilience: Two platforms turn real-life challenges into gamified “quests” for growth and use AI chatbots for daily mood tracking and cognitive coaching.
3. Courage and Confidence: One program uses exposure therapy and adaptive feedback to build bravery in youth.

We used to think that only academic skills could or should be measured. But now, we can track and cultivate whatever we choose—cognitive, emotional, physical, or social skills. The future many of us have long imagined is now within reach:

a future where schools measure and nurture the human spirit, not just scholastic metrics.

And so, with thanks for reading this far, I offer you the real heart of this piece: the dream AI program I’d create—if I were the ruler of education, or in my next lifetime.

RootedAI (My Dream)

A regenerative learning ecosystem designed by Stuart Grauer to support students not just academically, but emotionally, physically, and ecologically.

RootedAI cultivates empathy, optimism, courage, and kindness—while guiding learners toward healthy lifestyles, sustainable living, and regenerative human organizations. It’s adaptive. It’s gamified. It’s no substitute for personal warmth or time in nature, but it’s grounded, as I’ll describe.

Features include:

• Personalized “quests” for emotional growth, wellness, and environmental action, instantly adapted to each learner’s optimal motivation level
• Daily reflection prompts tied to biofeedback, nature interaction, and empathy scores
• Collaborative missions to restore community or environmental health—locally or globally
• A learner profile that grows with the student, highlighting strengths and values beyond GPA or college readiness—this becomes the next-generation high school transcript

The RootedAI guide and mascot: the river otter—a playful, curious creature known for its intelligence, agility, and joyful sense of community. As learners grow, individually and in teams, the otter swims ahead, nudging them toward their next meaningful challenge—whether a climate action project, a resilience quest, or a compassion-building mission.

Closing Thought

When I founded The Grauer School, I set out to move beyond the narrow academic sorting used by other schools. I insisted there were better ways to assess student potential than math and verbal scores—which remain over-prioritized in both school and college admissions.

I’ve long believed these scores became the dominant proxies for school success not because they reflect what matters most—but because they’re easy to quantify and standardize. You can test them with little or no training.

Instead, I contacted psychologists and psychometricians across the country. In the end, we chose the FIRO-B survey as our only “entry exam” to assess student integrity and independence—because character mattered more to us than test scores. We used that method for decades. Still, I’m not sure the world—or maybe the FIRO-B itself—was ready to fully capture a student’s evolving character.

Maybe the world is ready now.
We can now measure and cultivate the values we claim to uphold. Those qualities—empathy, courage, purpose—are not fixed. They can be nurtured. I don’t deny the temptation and even impetus to cover the extreme greed and cruelty we can find all over the world at the click of a keyboard, and we cannot hide from this, but, to me, the most essential question is what focus holds the greatest imperative for the human spirit.

I hope schools and colleges will recognize that student “fitness” goes far beyond math and verbal reasoning—and that registrars will soon design transcripts that reflect the values and mission of their institutions.

These new AI tools offer a rare opportunity:
To assess, live, and honor the values we espouse.
Used wisely, they could sharpen minds, strengthen character, clarify purpose—and maybe even help preserve habitats for the river otter.

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