Inside Montessori: The Schools | Quiet Island Films

The Schools in Our Film

INSIDE MONTESSORI shines a light on five Montessori schools across the United States. These powerful stories of success illustrate why so many parents, children, and educators have embraced this approach to education and why the best practices of Montessori should be available more broadly.

Child sitting in mothers lap and smiling

Lumin Education

Dallas, Texas

Lumin Education operates in one of the lowest income communities in Dallas. At the core of the Lumin Education philosophy is a commitment to start early and engage parents. As a result, gaps in education are closing and graduation rates and college attendance are growing significantly.

Montessori Partners Serving All Children

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Montessori Partners Serving All Children has been instrumental in the founding of Cornerstone Montessori, situated next to a public housing development where families from all over the world are transitioning to new lives, and Siembra Montessori, a Spanish language Children’s House in South Minneapolis. Montessori Partners has also supported the founding of an American Indian program that offers both Dakota and Ojibwe language, and the first Hmong Montessori program in the world. All of these environments demonstrate the unparalleled adaptability of the Montessori approach as it respects and builds on the cultural experience of children and their families.

Young student wearing an apron and painting with watercolors at a table

Two students sitting at a table looking away

City Garden School

Saint Louis, Missouri

City Garden School demonstrates how a community’s intentional commitment to fighting racism intersects with its Montessori philosophy, transforming students, families, teachers, and the community beyond the school. The racial tension and segregation experienced in St. Louis led City Garden’s executive director Christie Huck and her colleagues to establish a racially integrated Montessori program that practices the grace, courtesy, and comprehensive learning that grounds the Montessori approach.

Lake Country School

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lake Country School is an independent Montessori school that serves children from three years old through eighth grade. This story focuses on how the school empowers adolescents through a residency on a land school in rural Wisconsin as well as an Odyssey trip and 100-mile bike adventure. The Lake Country junior high program is highly regarded as a model for applying the Montessori methodology to adolescent education, focusing on the developmental needs of the adolescent and nurturing their nascent adulthood.

High school student looking at a jar and taking notes

Milwaukee Public School District

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Public School District is home to the largest district Montessori program in the country, with seven schools serving students from pre-school through high school. This story focuses on MacDowell Montessori’s high school program. Public Montessori schools in Milwaukee demonstrate how key elements, including the availability of high-level teacher training, internal school district support, and a strong parent and educator advocacy community have come together to make widespread Montessori education possible.

Montessori Partners Serving All Children

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Cornerstone Montessori is situated next to a public housing development where families from all over the world are transitioning to new lives. Students are enjoying measurable, transformative outcomes while discovering new possibilities for creating a diverse community that supports families and embraces their differences.

Beyond Cornerstone Montessori, Montessori Partners Serving All Children has been instrumental in the founding of a Spanish language Children’s House in South Minneapolis, an American Indian program that offers both Dakota and Ojibwe language, and the first Hmong Montessori program in the world. All of these environments demonstrate the unparalleled adaptability of the Montessori approach as it respects and builds on the cultural experience of children and their families.