By Allison Buckley - The Daily News -

Lee Burns has always been passionate about education.

Although his job as headmaster is to inspire the more than 630 boys that attend Presbyterian Day School, it was his grandfather, Maj. Arthur Burns, and Lee’s brother, Graham, who first inspired Burns to learn.

“As a little boy, I was exposed to a man that I greatly admired having a career as a teacher and administrator,” Burns said. “(Also), I have a younger brother, Graham, who has Williams syndrome, and growing up seeing his learning challenges first-hand helped to develop my interest in and passion for children’s learning.”

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1991 and gaining his master’s degree from Harvard in 1994, Burns taught, coached and eventually administered for six years at Christ School, an all-boys college preparatory school in North Carolina.

In 2000, Burns came to PDS, a decision that involved a lengthy interview process and many trips to Memphis.

“The more I came to PDS, the more I came to believe in the school’s mission and (that it) is a great fit for me, for my faith and my strong belief in single-sex education,” Burns said. “PDS obviously has a great reputation and I just feel so blessed to be a part of the school.”

That appreciation for single-sex education is something that transpired over years of going to all-boys schools himself. PDS offers a program called “Building Boys, Making Men.” It’s a year-long class built around the question, “What does it mean to be a man?” and Burns said programs like that are impossible at a co-ed school.

“If you look at what’s happening in our country today, boys are, in many cases, disengaging from school,” Burns said. “They’re dropping out – only about 40 percent of incoming freshmen in college now are boys. … They need to move around; they’re often visually and spatially oriented. They learn in ways that a lot of traditional schools just don’t fit well for boys.”

It’s the ability to influence and develop relationships with the boys of PDS that Burns said he enjoys most.

Recently, 5 million students from 58,000 schools in 218 countries participated in World Math Day, and three classes at PDS were in the top 30. Burns also prides himself on hiring the best teachers. Dedication has kept PDS at full enrollment during the declining economy. Burns believes it is because parents really do understand just how important education is.

“There’s no greater investment that you can make than giving your child education,” Burns said. “(Our parents) want value. They want excellence. Eighty percent of (PDS’) teachers have studied at Harvard in the last five summers. There’s a laptop for every boy, a SMART Board in every classroom. Parents value these things, and it translates into academic excellence and great preparation and performance.”

Currently, PDS is about two-thirds of the way through a $26 million capital campaign. PDS recently opened an early childhood center and a physical education center and has unveiled a new field. It is also raising money for more music and arts space, another science lab, a media center and a reading and learning center.

“Even though its been such a tough economy the last few years – for people who have made over $16 million in investments in PDS, you know, speaks to people’s belief in our mission and the way we educate boys,” Burns said.

Beyond the campus, PDS is striving to make a difference in the community. One such endeavor includes the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence, an institute that offers world-class professional development for public- and private-school teachers. The institute is housed on the PDS campus and offers teacher residency and public speakers, as well as ideas of leading educational thinkers as another way to follow PDS’ belief in lifelong learning.

“(By creating the Martin Institute) we’re saying, ‘Hey, let’s open up a resource that we have. It’s something that we do extremely well, which is teacher training, and let’s share that more broadly,’” Burns said. “I hope we’ll continue to find ways for PDS, as a private school, to have a public purpose.”

For two years, Burns has been the vice president of Elementary Headmasters Association, a group of about 250 headmasters around the country that focuses on issues that are unique to serving elementary students.

Locally, Burns is on the board at the Neighborhood Christian Center, involved with Boy Scouts of America and is a deacon at Second Presbyterian Church. He also helped write “Principles of Good Practice” for middle school, a list of principles that should guide middle schools today.

“(With these affiliations) I grow professionally and it’s good to share some ideas with other leaders,” Burns said. “But what I’m more interested in is how can PDS – as an institution – how can we give back to the Memphis community more broadly?”