# Ethical Culture Fieldston School

The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K–12th grade coeducational school in New York City with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 faculty and staff.
The school consists of four divisions: Ethical Culture (Pre-K through 5th grade, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan), Fieldston Lower (in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, also serves Pre-K through 5th grade), Fieldston Middle (6th–8th grades, in Riverdale), and Fieldston Upper (9th–12th grades, in Riverdale). Tuition and fees for ECFS were $60,595 for the 2022–2023 school year and $63,020 for the 2023–2024 school year.

## History

The school opened in 1878 as a free kindergarten, founded by Felix Adler at the age of 24. In 1880, elementary grades were added, and the school was then called the Workingman's School. By 1890 the school's academic reputation encouraged many more wealthy parents to seek it out, and the school was expanded to accommodate the upper-class as well, and began charging tuition; in 1895 the name changed to "The Ethical Culture School", and in 1903 the New York Society for Ethical Culture became its sponsor. Fieldston awards over $15 million in tuition-based financial aid to 22% of the student body.
One of the early faculty members was American sociologist Lewis Hine.
In March 1970, about 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.

### Recent developments

Beginning in 2015, the school began separating children for mandatory weekly "affinity group" meetings based on their self-identified race, 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 between students. The students in the video use derogatory and racist language. Students involved who were still enrolled in the school were punished; however, some students who thought the actions were not enough staged a sit-in. Students occupied the administration building overnight throughout the week, 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; the students' demands were agreed to and are planned to be implemented. The student organization SOCM (Students of Color Matter) continued after the end of the occupation of the administration building, and currently 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, a statement which was denounced as antisemitic, including two Reform Jewish rabbis who spoke at the school in the wake of the controversy and subsequently published a New York Times editorial about the incident.
In January 2020, the school fired a tweeting Jewish teacher who opposed the invitation of two speakers on anti-Semitism because they were, according to him, "white" and Zionists. Some parents asked for the teacher's reinstatement. The Israeli-Palestinian war increased tensions yet again on the Fieldston campus, leading to more controversy and press-coverage of the high school.

## Academics

The core of their educational program is the study and practice of ethics which is infused throughout the interdisciplinary curriculum. Whole-child pedagogy attempts to nurture the intellectual, physical, emotional, and social growth of every student.
Fieldston terminated its participation in the Advanced Placement Program in 2002 to give its faculty the freedom to offer more innovative, challenging, and thought-provoking material. Students can take AP exams, but the school no longer officially 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:
Girls Varsity Volleyball 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 can participate in a variety of before and after-school programs, including 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 Fieldston Upper's student-run newspaper.
Inklings is the school's literary journal, published and edited by students in the Upper School. It is available only in print at the end of each academic year.

## Peer schools

Ethical Culture Fieldston is a part of the Ivy Preparatory School League, with many of New York City's elite private schools. The three high schools Fieldston, Riverdale, and Horace Mann together are known as the "Hill schools," as all three (sometimes rivals) are located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, on a hilly area above Van Cortlandt Park.

## Notable alumni and former students

See List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni