The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K through twelfth grade coeducational school in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is a member of the

Ivy Preparatory School League The Ivy Preparatory School League is a high school athletic conference of preparatory schools in New York City and its suburbs. The Ivy Preparatory School League has no affiliation with the Ivy League universities. Members The league comprises t ...

. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 faculty and staff. The school consists of four divisions: Ethical Culture (pre-K through fifth grade that is located on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

) and located in the Riverdale section of

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

are, Fieldston Lower that also serves pre-K through fifth grade, Fieldston Middle that serves sixth–eighth grades, and Fieldston Upper that serves ninth–twelfth grades. Tuition and fees for the school were $60,595 for the 2022–2023 school year and $63,020 for the 2023–2024 school year. Fieldston awards more than $15 million in tuition-based financial aid to 22% of the student body.

History

The school opened in 1878 as a free

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, founded by Felix Adler, who was 26 years of age at the time. One of the early faculty members at the school was American sociologist

Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs taken during times such as the Progressive Era and the Great Depression captured young children working in harsh ...

. In 1880, elementary grades were added and the school was named as, the Workingman's School. By 1890, the school's academic reputation encouraged many more wealthy parents to seek it out, so the school was expanded to accommodate the upper-class as well and began charging tuition. In 1895, the name was changed to "The Ethical Culture School". In 1903, the New York

Society for Ethical Culture A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

became its sponsor.

Twentieth century

In March 1970, approximately 60 students occupied the administration building in protest to demand that more black and Puerto Rican students be admitted to the school. They also aimed to have a greater number of minority courses, teachers, advisors, employees. The school agreed to some of the student demands.

Twenty-first century

Beginning in 2015, the school began having the children assemble, based on their personal affinity, into weekly "affinity group" mandatory meetings in order to discuss issues of race and bias. The experimental trial program was met with controversy from some Fieldston parents. In February 2019, a video that is believed to have been created years previously was discovered by administrators after it was shared during a dispute among some of the students. Students in the video use derogatory and racist language. The students involved who were still enrolled in the school were punished; however, some students who thought the punitive actions were not adequate, staged a sit-in. Throughout the week students occupied the administration building overnight, receiving widespread support from the student body and many parents. The students presented the administrators with demands that included increased racial bias training, more faculty of color, more students of color recruitment, and a required ethnic studies course. Their demands were agreed to and plans for implementation were established. These students founded SOCM (Students of Color Matter) and continued as an organization after the end of the occupation of the administration building and it works to implement initiatives based on the original 16 demands. The school also attracted attention in November 2019 after it hosted a guest speaker who compared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, a statement that was denounced as

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. The critics included two Reform Jewish rabbis who spoke at the school in the wake of the controversy and subsequently published a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' editorial about the incident. In January 2020, the school fired a Jewish teacher who tweeted opposition to an invitation extended to two speakers on anti-Semitism because of his allegation that they were "white" and Zionists. Some parents requested the reinstatement of the teacher. The Israeli-Palestinian war increased tensions on the Fieldston campus as well. That issue led to more controversy and press-coverage of the high school.

Academics

The core of the Fieldston educational program is the study and practice of ethics that is infused throughout the interdisciplinary curriculum. Whole-child pedagogy is practiced, attempting to nurture the intellectual, physical, emotional, and social growth of every student. Fieldston terminated its participation in the

Advanced Placement Program Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewh ...

in 2002 to give its faculty the freedom to offer more innovative, challenging, and thought-provoking material. Students still may take APP exams, but officially, the school no longer sponsors such courses.

Athletics

Fieldston has 60 junior varsity and varsity athletic teams in the middle and upper schools. Student athletes have won 26 state and 65 league titles since the year 2000. Teams are part of the Ivy Preparatory School League and include: Fall sports * Cross country *

Field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Girls tennis A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. ''daughter'' or ''girlfriend'' regardless of age, ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

Winter sports *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Indoor track Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

Squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

Spring sports *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

* Boys tennis *

Track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

Their Girls Varsity Volleyball team won the 2023 New York State Independent School (NYSAIS) Championship after having an undefeated season with 21 wins.

Student life

At the two lower schools and in the middle school, students may participate in a variety of before-school and after-school programs that include fencing, cooking, golf, robotics, chess, and many sports. In the upper and middle schools, there are more than 80 student-led clubs, affinity groups, and service-learning organizations.

Student publications

''The Fieldston News'' is a student-run newspaper at Fieldston Upper. ''Inklings'' is the literary journal for the entire school, published and edited by students in the upper school. It is available only in print and at the end of each academic year.

Peer schools

Ethical Culture Fieldston is a part of the

, as are many elite private schools in New York City. Although sometimes they are rivals, three high schools in the Riverdale section of the Bronx: Fieldston, Riverdale, and

Horace Mann Horace Mann (May 4, 1796August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig Party (United States), Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education, he is thus also known as ''The Father of A ...

are known collectively as "the hill schools" because all three are located on a hilly area above

Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park is a urban park, park located in the borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Al ...

Notable alumni and former students

See List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

References

External links

* *
Ethical Culture Fieldston School records
a
New-York Historical Society
{{Authority control Central Park West Historic District Educational institutions established in 1878 Ethical movement Ivy Preparatory School League Preparatory schools in New York City Private K–12 schools in New York City Private elementary schools in Manhattan Private elementary schools in the Bronx Private middle schools in the Bronx Private high schools in the Bronx Riverdale, Bronx Upper West Side 1878 establishments in New York (state)