Follow
The ideal of the school is not the adaptation of the individual to the existing social environment, but to develop individuals who will be competent to change their environment to greater conformity with moral ideals.
—ECF's founder Felix Adler
Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECF), known as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. As of 2004, it had about 1600 students and a staff of 400.
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. At that time, the idea that the children of the poor should be educated was innovative. 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. The economic diversity which was important then continues today. Fieldston is said to have one of the largest financial aid funds of any independent school in the country. About 1/3 of the students are on full or partial financial aid.
Ethical Culture was said to pursue social justice, racial equality, and intellectual freedom. The school and the affiliated Ethical Culture Society were
havens for secular Jews who rejected the mysticism and rituals of Judaism, but accepted many of its ethical teachings. Additionally, because the institutionalized anti-Semitism of the times established rigid quota systems against Jews in private schools, the Ethical Culture School had a disproportionately large number of Jewish students. Ethical was the only one that did not discriminate because of race, color, or creed.
This tolerant spirit, and the founding philosophy overall, continues to draw families today although they might now be welcome anywhere. The school ended its formal ties with the Society in the 1990s, although retaining its name and striving to maintain the ethical tradition of its roots.
The school is a prominent part of the Progressive movement. Part of the school's curriculum, per the philosophy of Adler includes courses in ethics and moral philosophy, along with required community service. Drawing heavily on the educational philosophy of John Dewey, hands-on "learning by doing" is emphasized from pre-kindergarten through the senior year of high school. The school is known for its predominantly liberal student body and its commitment to diversity and a well-funded scholarship program. The "senior gift" given by graduating seniors and their families is frequently designated for financial aid.
The academic standards are high and virtually 100% of its graduates go on to college. Students in the upper school have to gather credits in a wide range of academic subjects and there are well-developed arts and performing arts programs, as well as many sports teams. There are many elective courses for the upper grades, providing flexibility for students to set their own curricula. The community service program is a cornerstone of the school, with students volunteering within the school, the surrounding community and the city at large. A hallmark of the school's ethics program has been the interaction by older students as peer advisors for younger ones, with 5th graders working with kindergarteners, and 11th and 12th grade students leading 7th and 8th graders in ethics courses (through a program called Student to Student), for example.
Source: Wikipedia
Notable Alumni
- Jill Abramson - former executive editor of The New York Times
- Clifford Alexander Jr - former Secretary of the Army
- Joseph Amiel - author
- Diane Arbus - photographer
- Richard Barlow - intelligence officer
- Leslie Cohen Berlowitz - past president, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Leon Black - financier, Apollo Management and Drexel Burnham Lambert
- Jordan Bratman - music marketer
- Joy Bryant - actress
- Nancy Cantor - chancellor, Syracuse University
- Roy Cohn - attorney
- Sofia Coppola - Oscar-winning writer/director (attended middle school at Fieldston)
- Andrew Delbanco - critic and author
- Nicholas Delbanco - novelist
- David Denby - film critic, The New Yorker
- Ralph de Toledano - author
- Joseph Leo Doob - mathematician
- Douglas Durst - real estate magnate
- Darcy Frey - author
- Rita Gam - film actress
- Alan Gilbert - music director of the New York Philharmonic
- Ailes Gilmour - dancer
- Leonie Gilmour - educator and writer
- Rob Glaser - internet pioneer
- Matt Goldman and Chris Wink - founders of Blue Man Group
- Cleve Gray - artist
- Judith Lewis Herman - psychiatrist
- Charles Herman-Wurmfeld - film director
- Lewis Hine - photographer
- Robert Jervis - political scientist
- Rodney Jones - jazz guitarist
- Jeffrey Katzenberg - film producer, media mogul
- Yosuke Kawasaki - violinist
- Sinah Estelle Kelley - chemist
- William Melvin Kelley - author
- Charlie King - New York civic leader and politician
- Arthur Kinoy - civil rights lawyer
- Ernest Kinoy - screenwriter
- Walter Koenig - actor
- Joseph Kraft - public affairs columnist
- Louise Lasser - actress
- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - author, The New York Times book reviewer
- Sean Ono Lennon - musician
- Eda LeShan - child psychologist and author
- Carl P. Leubsdorf - Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
- Dorothy Otnow Lewis - psychiatrist
- Doug Liman - film director
- Andrew Litton - conductor, Dallas Symphony
- Beulah Livingstone - motion picture publicist
- Douglas Lowenstein - president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
- Staughton Lynd - peace activist and civil rights activist
- Jeffrey Lyons - film critic, WNBC-TV, New York
- Mark A. Michaels - author and sexuality educator
- Robert (Bob) Marshall - conservationist, writer, and the founder of The Wilderness Society
- Jane Mayer - staff writer, The New Yorker
- Nicholas Meyer - film director
- Jo Mielziner - stage designer
- Marvin Minsky - pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
- Frederic S. Mishkin - governor of the Federal Reserve Board
- Robert M. Morgenthau - retired New York County District Attorney
- Robert Moses - urban planner
- Howard Nemerov - former United States Poet Laureate
- Gabriel Olds - actor, writer
- J. Robert Oppenheimer - physicist, Scientific Director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"
- Emanuel R. Piore - chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer
- Belva Plain - author
- Letty Cottin Pogrebin - author
- Edward R. Pressman - film producer
- Richard Ravitch - business and civic leader
- Menachem Z. Rosensaft - attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
- Lois Roth - foreign affairs
- Dan Rottenberg - journalist and author
- Muriel Rukeyser - poet and playwright
- David Sarasohn - associate editor and syndicated columnist for the Oregonian newspaper
- James H. Scheuer - U.S. Congressman (N.Y.)
- Gil Scott-Heron - musician
- Nicole Seligman - lawyer, Sony Corporation executive
- Cynthia Propper Seton - author
- Robert B. Sherman - composer, lyricist, screenwriter, painter
- Stephen Slesinger - creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
- Tess Slesinger - author/screenwriter
- Alan B. Slifka - investor and philanthropist
- Donald J. Sobol - author of children's short stories
- Stephen Sondheim - composer, attended the Fieldston Lower School
- Albert Alexander Smith - artist
- Ruth P. Smith - pro-choice and reproductive rights advocate
- Dan Squadron - New York State Senator
- Andy Stein - musician
- Stewart Stern - screenwriter
- Paul Strand - photographer and filmmaker
- James Toback - filmmaker
- Richard Tofel - author
- Doris Ulmann - photographer of Appalachia
- Laurence Urdang - lexicographer, dictionary editor
- Helen Valentine - founder of Seventeen magazine
- Barbara Walters - TV news broadcaster
- Andrew Weisblum - Oscar-nominated film editor
- Howard Wolfson - deputy mayor of New York City
- Jane C. Wright - oncologist
- Keith L. T. Wright - New York State Senator
- Sheryl WuDunn - former award-winning writer for the New York Times
- Adam Yarmolinsky - academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
- Eli Zabar - New York City restaurateur