Montessori program aims at peace in a world of violence. (pre-school religious program at the Christian Family Montessori School in Mount Rainier, MD)(Cover Story)

MOUNT RAINIER, Md. -- A few miles from the White House and in the shadow of the Catholic University of America is the incorporated town of Mount Rainier, Md.

The population of 8,000 is for the most part middle class and multicultural. This is a friendly, close-knit town with a thrift shop, food co-ops and family stores. Like all closed-in suburbs of major U.S. cities, though, it is also threatened by violence, drug-dealing, muggings -- even murder.

How, then, to safeguard the children, to prepare them for living in a time when the Cold War has receded but…