This article is the story of Drummond Montessori Magnet School. From the sidewalk, Drummond Montessori Magnet School, a 117-year-old hulking mass of a building in Chicago, Illinois, appeared to be just another prosaic part of any American cityscape. This past May, the author witnessed a schoolyard scene that has probably unfolded numerous times in Drummond's long history--laughing kids hanging upside down on monkey bars and congregating in loud packs on the school's asphalt playground. However, as soon as she crossed the school's threshold, the ghosts of Drummond's past receded and were replaced by a sense that somewhere along its cavernous hallways and light-filled, airy classrooms, a miraculous sea change had just recently occurred.