
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994                   TAG: 9401200369
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY BELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NORFOLK ACADEMY HEADMASTER LOOKS AT ROLE OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS

The 330 high school students at Norfolk Academy, where John H. Tucker Jr. is headmaster, take four different days each year to read, discuss, think and write about topics from Genesis to Martin Luther King.

Forfeiting the daily activities for such seminars is some of the educational reform going on in private schools, Tucker said Friday during Founders Day at North Cross School, where G. William Stacey IV was installed as the fifth headmaster. Stacey, who is in his second year at North Cross, had worked under Tucker in Norfolk.

While addressing students, staff and parents, Tucker talked about the future of education and the criticism given public schools.

He said the model for future schools is controversial and likely to stay that way. Educators, he said, should not continue teaching to statewide tests and uniform learning styles. Rather, students should be prepared for the real world by learning problem-solving skills.

"College preparatory course work must be stressed in public and independent schools or we will be deprived of a great many leaders. We must discover new ways to work with students, teachers and parents," Tucker said.

Technology, he said, will drive the schools.

"I have seen students go off to college with a computer notebook in one hand and a stereo in the other only to discover that they become much fonder of the computer."

As for public education, Tucker said "more and more public schools imitate independent schools. And, as we know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Calling magnet schools "public private schools," Tucker said these schools continue to lead the way in computer technology and large-scale educational reform.

"I pay very little attention to public school criticism. I think they are doing a fine job."

Citing a West Coast summer project in which "at risk" public school students are paired with private school students, Tucker said he expects more such partnerships.

"The role of independent schools extends well beyond our doors," he said.

by CNB