Meet Dr. Stuart Grauer Teacher, Writer, Surfer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Stuart Grauer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Stuart, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thoughts ranged from very personal to broadly social. On a personal level, as a young teacher and principal working in European international schools, I was incredibly inspired by a few key teachers who had founded successful, small schools in beautiful locations. The idea that you could start a school is not something that comes up in college or career planning. I was stunned. I loved teaching, but there were entrepreneurial and expeditionary sides of me that were bursting to get out. Once I began at The Grauer School, every part of my mind, body, and spirit was completely challenged.

I also had experience as a tenured public high school humanities teacher, and although the quality of teachers was high and there were often good resources, I found too much anonymity and a lack of purpose. Too many kids were showing up mainly because they had to. I started to think the schools were too big. There was very little space for mentoring.

From an educational standpoint, the kids I met as I traveled to different schools and observed sometimes broke my heart, particularly the teens. Roaming the halls of schools or the malls of town, they seemed so separate, so unconnected to the larger community. I wanted to create a space where everyone—teachers, parents, community members, teens, elders—could all connect. I wanted teens to have wider connections because, without deep connection, we cannot have joy or fulfillment. I wanted teens to have a voice and to know their voice was heard.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After I graduated from the University of San Diego’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership, they changed their name to the School of Leadership and Educational Sciences. I get it, but I was discouraged. I know teaching is a science, with many skill sets to master, but to me, the whole point of all that science was to create art. Teaching is a great art. I lost my first job (I actually shipped out on a sailing vessel before the school year was out and got fired). During my early years of teaching humanities, I admit I veered quite a bit from the required curriculum. I held assemblies, brought in amazing guest speakers, taught guided imagery and global perspectives, created group projects… and neglected quite a bit of the curriculum that was preparation for the state exams. It took a lot of explaining once my students’ scores came back! But we had the greatest conversations in the world, and I still get letters of thanks from them.

My point is that insisting teaching is an art, however appealing and natural that may sound to some, is a hard road. When I give workshops or seminars to teachers at conferences and hear their pain at being confined and judged by reductionist, controlling curricula, I sometimes have to tell them: You can either complain your whole life or do what you know is right and risk your job.

The teacher role is not a job, it is a life. You live, dream, and create it. I stop in on schools of all kinds when I am on vacation. Last year, on my dream trip to Morocco, there was an earthquake the week before I left, so after I arrived we loaded up the van with soccer balls and school supplies and delivered them to the school kids way up in the High Atlas Mountains. If you want to see kids come running with big smiles …! Life is not a tourist trip. In our school, we never take trips with our students without integrating an authentic environmental or cultural immersion.

These backstories are a good introduction to The Grauer School brand, as is the New Hampshire license plate: “Live free or die.” Grauer has risked it all again and again as we have gathered trademarks like “Learn by Discovery®” and “Fearless Teaching®.” They may seem generic, but we own them; they are our legal trademarks, and if they sound familiar now, it is owing to a lot of sacrifice and hard work. People die. People misunderstand you or exploit you. You stay the course. We’ve had weddings and funerals on our campus. Just yesterday, I got a letter from another head of school who said, “I have been following your work for 16 years,” but I know it took years before he was willing to acknowledge that–because we took the risks of being different. Every good thing in the center was once in the margins. When you see something clearly, like a calling, you give up everything to pursue it. What more, it does not limit you, it liberates you–that’s how you know its a calling. You know you will never run out of critics and cynics, you will never stop explaining it again and again or being excited by it, and you believe that clarity will grow in others over time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite place is my home. I take my treasured guest, and at sunset, we have a glass of wine out back in a couple of Adirondack chairs. I”m not going to write it down, but when you’re here I’ll tell you the almost unbelievable story of how I got this home. Here, we are on a high place surrounded by a preserve of coastal sage and maritime chaparral, and from that high place, we look west out over The Grauer School, set down there in a natural green bowl. Some mornings, that bowl fills with white fog that gathers from the Pacific Ocean, another mile or two to the west. So my home, the School, and my favorite surf spot—which I won’t name—all form a perfect line.

All our campus buildings are matched to the local color tones of the surrounding flora and bluffs, and the school backs right into a nature preserve that’s right on our campus. Then, the land behind the school rises up to a high bluff that holds back the higher coastal fog.

As my guest, I might just take you to our favorite grocery or sushi bar, pick up some food, and drive to the coast for a sunset. In the morning, maybe we’ll catch some surf, or if it’s flat, we can take out stand-up paddleboards and paddle along the bluffs. I’ve been around for well over 30 years, so wherever we go, I’ll introduce you to some interesting locals. When the Encinitas Historical Society named me a “Legendary Local,” I was amazed and humbled. Because organizational leadership does not end at the campus boundary… the leader has to embody the brand wherever they go, pumping gas, buying groceries, riding waves.

Like many towns, maybe yours, my town has its share of local eateries, music venues, art galleries, gardens and parks, e-bike routes, shops of all kinds, and seasonal events to keep us busy. Our downtown is not filled up with franchises, so it feels local, soulful, and unique. Let’s catch a movie at the old, art deco-style La Paloma Theatre.

It’s true that I have had head-spinning travel and expeditionary experiences (this year alone: Yucatan, New York, the Arctic, Indonesia surfing, Rocky Mountain skiing and hiking, some road trips, and more), but I love my home the most. Let’s tour The Grauer School’s outdoor classrooms–there are stories in every one! When you visit, I can almost guarantee that The School will be serving up some extremely fun events: sports matches, concerts on the green, plays, galas, celebrations, and just hanging out with teachers and students at lunchtime. And Tim, the lunch server from Ki’s, the legendary local natural foods eatery that provides our lunch service, will have some extra for you.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mother was sui generis, never holding back an opinion or hiding who she was. She believed that children needed to find their own way, and telling us to “get outdoors” was a common parenting technique of hers. I grew up outdoors—free-range, so to speak—and learned to treasure freedom and wide-open spaces in everything I’ve done.

I’ve had various mentors, and this is something I would encourage all teachers and educational leaders to know: your efforts to find great teachers never stops.

I didn’t not find many mentors early on, though, and to be honest, in my early career, I experienced considerable disconnection. My first boss told me I should get out of the field, that I was not cut out to be a teacher. That only made me more resolute, and it was a key aspect of my decision to move to Europe to teach—aside from my passion for skiing! But at last, when I was around 30, I met Dr. Joseph Rost, founder of the University of San Diego School of Educational Leadership doctoral program. He encouraged me to connect all the dots—from expeditionary education to a wonderful conception of leadership as collaborative and relationship-based, breaking free of the standards and “shoulds” of high school. That conception was essential to the creation, sustenance, and health of The Grauer School. I could never have provided that leadership, though, without Dana Abplanalp-Diggs, who grew into a masterful site manager and teacher, and David Meyer, a local developer who used his development and project management expertise to help turn our dreams for a new kind of campus into reality.

After around 30 years of working with these two brilliant individuals, Dana has taken over as Head of School, and David is a member of our Board of Trustees! Having talented, responsible individuals like them around me has enabled me to continue to seek that freedom not only for myself but especially for all my students. “Get outdoors” is something they have all heard me say frequently.

I have found that this approach has major payoffs. For instance, on average, our students are offered at least half the cost of their tuition back in scholarship offers from colleges that really appreciate having well-rounded, healthy kids who are less stressed out and more purposeful. But more important, the small school approach is proving to show major benefits in student engagement, safety, and connectedness.

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Other: https://www.grauerschool.com/campus-life/stuarts-page
https://smallschoolscoalition.org/