Article 4: Montessori Education in Kansas City, Missouri From 1988–2005: Race, the Dottoressa and the Pink Tower

Montessori schooling in Kansas City, Missouri emerged during a time of considerable conflict and legal turmoil within the public educational system. Indeed, the Kansas City, Missouri School District was in the midst of a decades-long struggle for racial, social, and educational equity resulting in a 2 billion dollar court case when the first Montessori schools grew into existence (Davis 2004). The filing of the desegregation case, its ongoing need for oversight from state officials, and its ultimate resolution became the backdrop for Montessori school creation in the city. So, we wondered just how Montessori education, an approach founded in the early twentieth century by one of Italy’s first female physicians and recognizable by one of the iconic learning materials she designed known as the Pink Tower, took hold within a school district and city mired in racial division. The following research questions drove our work: