Ethical Culture Fieldston School

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 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The school consists of four divisions: Ethical Culture (pre-K through fifth grade that is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan) and located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ecfs.org">Template:Cite web</ref> Fieldston awards more than $15 million in tuition-based financial aid to 22% of the student body.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ecfs.org"/>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 still may take AP exams, but officially, the school no longer sponsors such courses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Col-beginTemplate:Col-break Fall sports

• Cross country
• Field hockey
• Football
• Soccer
• Girls tennis
• Volleyball
• Water polo

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• Basketball
• Ice hockey
• Indoor track
• Squash
• Swimming
• Table tennis

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• Baseball
• Golf
• Lacrosse
• Softball
• Boys tennis
• Track and field
• Ultimate Frisbee

Template:Col-end Their Girls Varsity Volleyball team won the 2023 New York State Independent School (NYSAIS) Championship after having an undefeated season with 21 wins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

File:301 WORKINGMEN'S SCHOOL, SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE, 54 WEST 54TH STREET.jpg

Workingmen's school in Manhattan, 1893

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Ethical Culture in Manhattan

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Felix Adler, Template:Circa

The school opened in 1878 as a free kindergarten, 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. 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 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Miller, Lisa. "Can Racism Be Stopped in the Third Grade?", The Cut, May 19, 2015.</ref><ref name=tablet2019>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 that was denounced as antisemitic.<ref>Shapiro, Eliza. "Fieldston, Elite Private School, Faces Backlash From Jewish Parents", The New York Times, January 10, 2020.</ref> 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 editorial about the incident.<ref>Hirsch, Ammiel and Joshua Davidson. "The Anti-Israel Craze Hits High School." The New York Times. 16 January 2020.</ref>

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.<ref>JTA, Ben Sales: Elite N.Y. Prep School Fires Teacher Who Posted anti-Zionist Tweets In: Haaretz, 11 January 2020.</ref> Some parents requested the reinstatement of the teacher.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Student publications

The Fieldston News is a student-run newspaper at Fieldston Upper.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Peer schools

Ethical Culture Fieldston is a part of the Ivy Preparatory School League,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 are known collectively as "the hill schools" because all three are located on a hilly area above Van Cortlandt Park..<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable alumni and former students

See List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

See also

• Education in New York City
• List of high schools in New York City

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• Template:Official website
• Ethical Culture Fieldston School records at New-York Historical Society