Squatting on the floor like so many tiny tailors, the 26 tots peered at each other with calmness and mild curiosity. They evinced none of the wary caution their parents sometimes showed. As they warmed up to the situation, their silence gave way to a babel of comment in five different languages. The United Nations nursery school was officially open.
The new school is in a white colonial farmhouse 200 yards from the huge, functional ex-factory that houses the U.N. at Lake Success. The U.N. turned the farmhouse over rent-free to a parents' association of delegates and secretariat members. U.N. parents park...