Her graduate degree is in European History, but in the mid-80's she became concerned that her students were not getting a coherent perception of their world with a curriculum limited to U.S. and European history, along with some regional studies. Consequently, she began to explore the idea of initiating a world course. Grady taught in an independent school so she had lots of freedom around curriculum development. She began reading world histories, attending workshops and summer institutes taught by the professors who were on the cutting edge of "big history," and collaborating with other high school teachers who were searching for a more global narrative for their students.