Ethical Culture Fieldston School

The Ethical Culture Fieldston School is one of New York City's private schools. It currently (as of 2004) has about 1600 students, a staff of 400 people directed by the head of School Dr. Joseph P. Healey. In the words of its founder, Felix Adler: "The ideal of the school is to develop individuals who will be competent to change their environment to greater conformity with moral ideals."

History

The school first opened in 1878, as a free kindergarten. In 1880, elementary grades were added, and the school was then called the Working Man's School. At that time, the idea that the children of the poor were capable of becoming educated was innovative. Soon after, the school's high academic reputation, encouraged many more wealthy clients to seek it out, and eventually the Society for Ethical Culture (also in need of funds) expanded it to accommodate the upper-class as well (for a price). The diversity (of economic backgrounds) which was so important then continues today, as the school (as of 2004) has one of the highest financial aid funding of any independent school in the country. The school moved into its well known landmark building at 33 Central Park West in 1904. The entire school was located in that building until 1928 when the high school division (Fieldston) moved to its 18 acre (73,000 m²) campus on Fieldston Road, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Ethical was said (see New York Review of Books: April 25, 2002) 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. One of the early faculty members was the famous documentary photographer Lewis Hine.

The "Ivy League"

Ethical Culture Fieldston is a part of the "Ivy League" division of New York City area co-educational private schools. Like the Ivy League universities, this was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, but over time has evolved into a shorthand designation for some of the most prestigious private schools in New York. It includes the Dalton School in Manhattan, Poly Prep in Brooklyn, Horace Mann in the Bronx, Riverdale in the Bronx, Trinity in Manhattan, The Collegiate School in Manhattan, and Hackley School in Tarrytown. Fieldston, Riverdale, and Horace Mann together are known as the "hilltop schools", as all three are located within two miles of each other in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, on a hilly area above Van Cortlandt Park. The three also share perhaps the greatest amount of inter-school sports rivalry.

Alumni

Among its many prominent alumni are:

• Diane Arbus
• Robert M. Morgenthau
• J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Paul Strand
• Doris Ulmann
• Robert Moses
• Richard Ravitch
• Former United States Poet Laureate Howard Nemerov
• Stephen Sondheim attended the Fieldston Lower School

Philosophy

The school is a prominent part of the Progressive Movement. Part of the school's curriculum, per the philosophy of its founder, Felix Adler, is a heavy dose of ethics and moral philosophy. It is known for its predominantly liberal student body and its commitment to diversity and its well-funded scholarship program. The school is very well known for dropping its participation in the Advanced Placement Program in 2002 to give its faculty (particularly in history) the freedom to offer more challenging material.

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