Cooperative Motherhood and Democratic Civic Culture in Postwar Suburbia, 1940-1965‪.‬

On the evening of November 20, 1939, 18 mothers convened in Kensington, Maryland to finalize plans for a play group designed to enrich the lives of their preschoolers. The mothers had hired a teacher, rented a space, and agreed to study childhood education as well as to take turns assisting the teacher. After one successful year, the group named itself the Kensington Cooperative Nursery School, and thus became an early participant in what would soon emerge as a nationwide movement among suburban mothers: the cooperative nursery school movement. (1) As the Kensington story suggests, co-op nursery schools were neighborhood preschools, owned and operated by mothers of the children who attended them. In addition to running the school, each mother regularly assisted the teacher in the classroom and committed herself to a parent education program. Like other nursery schools, co-ops offered stimulating social, physical, and intellectual experiences as well as maximum creative freedom to young children. They also meant to enrich the lives of mothers. These neighborhood enterprises reached the peak of their popularity in the immediate postwar period and so illuminate the lives of an important cohort of postwar suburban women.