The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League

Ivy Preparatory School League

The Ivy Preparatory School League, like the Ivy League for universities, was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, for a group of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk county university-preparatory schools: Hackley School, Tarrytown, Trinity School, Manhattan, Riverdale...

. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people (as of 2004), led by Dr. Damian J. Fernandez, who was announced as new Head of School in November 2010, and began July 2011.

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."

The school consists of two lower schools (Pre-K to 5th grade): Ethical Culture (known as "Ethical" or "Midtown") located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Fieldston Lower (known as "Lower"), located on the Riverdale

Fieldston, Bronx

Fieldston is a section of the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York City. It is bounded by Manhattan College Parkway to the south, Henry Hudson Parkway to the west, 250th Street to the north and Broadway to the east....

 campus in the Bronx, both of which feed into a middle school (grades 6-8) and an upper school (Forms III to VI, grades 9-12) - The Fieldston School - also located on the Bronx campus. Ethical Culture is headed by Ann Clarke (interim), Fieldston Lower is headed by George Burns, and the Fieldston School is headed by Dr. John Love. The Middle School is headed by Kevin Jacobson. Tuition and fees for each of the schools were $37,825 for the 2011-12 year.

History

The school first opened in 1878, as a free kindergarten. It was 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: although the school's tuition is over $30,000 per student per year, 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.

The school moved into its 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 exclusive Fieldston section of Riverdale in the Bronx; the Manhattan branch of the Lower School remained there, and in 1932 a second Lower School was opened on the Riverdale campus. In 2007, a new middle school was opened on the same Riverdale campus, for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Ethical 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." 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.

One of the early faculty members was the famous documentary photographer Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine

Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.-Early life:...

.

Fieldston is not the only Ethical Culture School in the NYC area. In 1922, an Ethical Culture School was founded in the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn by Julie Wurtzberger Neuman. However, this school is unrelated to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

Philosophy and academics

The school is a prominent part of the Progressive Movement

Progressivism

Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

. Part of the school's curriculum, per the philosophy of its founder, Felix Adler, includes courses in ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

 and moral philosophy, along with required community service. Drawing heavily on the educational philosophy of John Dewey

John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...

, 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 funds.

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.

Fieldston is well known for being among the first schools to drop its participation in the Advanced Placement Program

Advanced Placement Program

The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...

 in 2002 to give its faculty the freedom to offer more challenging and thought-provoking material, rather than to "teach to the test." Students can take AP exams, but the school no longer officially sponsors such courses. While there was some concern that college admissions could be negatively affected, Fieldston's college office worked closely with admissions officers of schools across the country to explain the change, and assure that their students would be evaluated based on the quality of the courses, even without the AP designation.

The upper school's student newspaper is called the Fieldston News and the yearbook is the Fieldglass. The ECF Reporter and Field Notes provide news of the schools to alumni and parents. There are several student-run literary and art magazines, as well, such as Litmag, Dope Ink Prints, the popular satirical publication The Gouda (now defunct), the mathematics magazine Ars Magna, the music magazine The Fieldston LP, and the sports magazine Season Pass.

Expansion

Each year the number of students enrolled in the school system grows. In 2002, talk of expansion began; plans were laid out the following year. A new middle school as well as new gym facilities were planned, and construction began in June 2004 with an estimated date of completion of September 2007. The design of the two new buildings as well as significant renovations to the dining hall and classrooms was done by the New York architecture firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners

Cooper, Robertson & Partners

Cooper, Robertson & Partners is an international architecture and urban design firm headquartered in New York City.Founded originally as Alexander Cooper and Associates by Alex Cooper in 1979, the firm has designed a number of significant planned communities, urban infill, and transit-oriented...

.
Previously, the lower schools started with Pre-K and went up to 6th grade, and the upper school from 7th to 12th grade, with Forms 1 and 2 (7th and 8th grade) somewhat distinct from the high school, but sharing the same space, and with some overlap of faculty and much interaction among students. With the new middle school, located on the Fieldston campus, students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade are in their own building, with their own curriculum and faculty, and less interaction with the high school. This has the positive result of additional classrooms for the lower and upper schools which are overcrowded. However, there has been much controversy among the alumni, parent and student body concerning the issue, as some felt that Fieldston was losing its unique identity with this change, but economic and space pressures prevailed. The community remains divided on whether a separate middle school was pedagogically warranted, with strong feelings on both sides.

Athletics

Fieldston's athletic program includes 44 teams covering 14 sports. The teams, known as the "Fieldston Eagles", play in the Ivy Prep League against other private schools in the region. (The school's hockey team, however, does not play in the league and schedules its own games.)

Special programs

• Fieldston Outdoors - a six-week environmental day camp
• Weeks of Discovery/Computer Camps - one-week sports, computer, and other activity camps during school breaks
• BeforeSchool and AfterSchool - at the two Lower schools
• Fieldston Enrichment Program (FEP) - tutoring program for selected public school students in preparation of public and private high school entrance exams and requirements
• Young Dancemakers Company - acclaimed summer dance program

Notable alumni and former students

Among its many notable alumni and former students are the following:

• Jill Abramson
  Jill Abramson
  Jill Ellen Abramson is the executive editor of The New York Times. Assuming the position in September 2011, she became the first woman in this role in the paper's 160-year history.-Early life and education:...
  
   - executive editor for news, The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  
• Clifford Alexander Jr - former Secretary of the Army
• Joseph Amiel
  Joseph Amiel
  Joseph Amiel is an American attorney and novelist. He attended the Fieldston School in New York City and graduated from Amherst College in 1959; he received an LL.B. degree from Yale University Law School in 1962....
  
   - author
• Diane Arbus
  Diane Arbus
  Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
  
   - renowned photographer
• Leon Black
  Leon Black
  Leon David Black is an American businessman and money manager, with a focus on leveraged buyouts and private equity. He is a son of Eli M. Black , a prominent businessman who controlled the United Brands Company and committed suicide when caught paying bribes to the President of Honduras...
  
   - financier, Apollo Management
  Apollo Management
  Apollo Global Management, LLC is a private equity investment firm, founded in 1990 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Leon Black. The firm specializes in leveraged buyout transactions and purchases of distressed securities involving corporate restructuring, special situations and industry...
  
   and Drexel Burnham Lambert
  Drexel Burnham Lambert
  Drexel Burnham Lambert was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, which first rose to prominence and then was forced into bankruptcy in February 1990 by its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken. At its height, it was the...
  
  
• Jordan Bratman
  Jordan Bratman
  Jordan Bratman is an American music marketer. He is best known for his high-profile marriage to singer Christina Aguilera, with whom he was married from 2005 to 2011 and had a son.-Early life:...
  
   - music marketer
• Nancy Cantor
  Nancy Cantor
  Nancy Cantor is the 11th chancellor and president of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. She received her A.B. in 1974 from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1978 from Stanford University. She became chancellor upon the retirement of Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw...
  
   - chancellor, Syracuse University
  Syracuse University
  Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
  
  
• Roy Cohn
  Roy Cohn
  Roy Marcus Cohn was an American attorney who became famous during Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into Communist activity in the United States during the Second Red Scare. Cohn gained special prominence during the Army–McCarthy hearings. He was also an important member of the U.S...
  
   - attorney
• Sofia Coppola
  Sofia Coppola
  Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
  
   - Oscar winning writer/director (attended middle school at Fieldston)
• Andrew Delbanco
  Andrew Delbanco
  Dr. Andrew H. Delbanco is Director of American Studies at Columbia University and has been Columbia's Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities since 1995...
  
   - critic and author
• Nicholas Delbanco
  Nicholas Delbanco
  -Life:He was educated at Harvard University, B.A. 1963; Columbia University, M.A. 1966. He taught at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1966–84, and at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1984-85...
  
   - novelist
• David Denby
  David Denby (film critic)
  David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
  
   - film critic, The New Yorker
• Ralph de Toledano
  Ralph de Toledano
  Ralph de Toledano was a major figure in the conservative movement in the United States throughout the second half of the 20th century.-Early years:...
  
   - author
• Darcy Frey
  Darcy Frey
  Darcy Frey is an American writer from New York. Best known for his 1994 book The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams, Frey has published articles in The American Lawyer, Rolling Stone, Harper's, and The New York Times Magazine...
  
   - author
• Rita Gam
  Rita Gam
  Rita Gam is an American film and television actress and documentary film maker. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Career:...
  
   - film actress
• Alan Gilbert
  Alan Gilbert
  Alan David Gilbert AO, was a historian and academic administrator who was until June 2010 the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester....
  
   - music director of the New York Philharmonic
• Ailes Gilmour
  Ailes Gilmour
  Ailes Gilmour was a Japanese American dancer who was one of the young pioneers of the American Modern Dance movement of the 1930s. She was one of the first members of Martha Graham's dance company. Ailes' older brother was sculptor Isamu Noguchi.-Early life:Ailes, born 1912 in Yokohama, Japan, and...
  
   - dancer
• Leonie Gilmour
  Léonie Gilmour
  Léonie Gilmour was an American educator, editor, and journalist. She was the lover and editor of the writer Yone Noguchi and the mother of sculptor Isamu Noguchi and dancer Ailes Gilmour...
  
   - educator and writer
• Rob Glaser
  Rob Glaser
  Rob Glaser is the founder of RealNetworks which produces RealAudio, RealVideo, RealPlayer, and Helix, among other products and services...
  
   - internet pioneer
• Matt Goldman and Chris Wink - Two of the Three Founders of Blue Man Group
  Blue Man Group
  Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...
  
  
• Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
  Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
  Charles Herman-Wurmfeld is an American film director.- External links :...
  
   - Director of the film "Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein is a 2001 independent romantic comedy film, written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film also stars Tovah Feldshuh and is directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld...
  
  "
• Rodney Jones
  Rodney Jones
  Rodney Jones is an American poet and professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jones was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award. His other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Peter I.B...
  
   - Jazz guitarist
• Jeffrey Katzenberg
  Jeffrey Katzenberg
  Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
  
   - film producer, media mogul
• Yosuke Kawasaki
  Yosuke Kawasaki
  Yōsuke Kawasaki is a noted orchestral violinist, chamber musician and soloist.Kawasaki was born in New York City. He is Japanese American. He began his violin studies at the age of six with his father, Masao Kawasaki, and continued with Setsu Goto...
  
   - Orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and soloist
• William Melvin Kelley
  William Melvin Kelley
  William Melvin Kelley , is a prominent African American novelist and short-story writer. He is known for the novel A Different Drummer. He has won, among other things, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2008 for Lifetime Achievement...
  
   - author ("A Different Drummer", "Dunfords Travels Everywhere")
• Charlie King
  Charlie King (politician)
  Charlie King is an attorney, politician, and civic leader in New York. After graduating from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, he attended Brown University , and New York University Law School .King served as the chairman of the Democratic County Committee in New York County.King was a...
  
   - New York civic leader and politician
• Arthur Kinoy
  Arthur Kinoy
  Arthur Kinoy , was an attorney and progressive civil rights leader who became a professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law—Newark. He was one of the founders of the Center for Constitutional Rights and successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.-Education:Kinoy was born on...
  
   - prominent civil rights lawyer
• Ernest Kinoy
  Ernest Kinoy
  -Early life:Kinoy was born in New York City on April 1, 1925; his father and mother were both high-school teachers. His older brother Arthur Kinoy later became a leading constitutional lawyer. Kinoy attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and later Columbia University, although his studies...
  
   - screenwriter of early TV (Roots, The Defenders, Dr. Kildare)
• Walter Koenig
  Walter Koenig
  Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.-Early life:...
  
   - actor, played Pavel Chekov
  Pavel Chekov
  Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a Russian Starfleet officer in the Star Trek fictional universe. Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in the original Star Trek series and first seven Star Trek films; Anton Yelchin portrayed the character in the 2009 film Star Trek.-Origin:Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry...
  
   on TV's Star Trek
  Star Trek
  Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
  
  ; he held a school record in track and field until the late '80s
• Joseph Kraft
  Joseph Kraft
  Joseph Kraft was an American journalist.After working at the Washington Post and the New York Times in the 1950s, he became a speechwriter for 1960 Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. His work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents...
  
   - public affairs columnist
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt is an American journalist, critic and novelist who has worked in the field of books all of his professional career. He began as an editor for various New York City publishing houses, among them Holt, Rinehart and Winston and The Dial Press, from where he moved in 1965 to...
  
   - author, The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  book reviewer
• Sean Ono Lennon - musician
• Eda LeShan
  Eda LeShan
  Eda LeShan was an American writer, television host, counselor, educator, and playwright. She was a "voice of respect for the inherent integrity of children." LeShan was married to Lawrence LeShan, the American psychologist and writer.LeShan's books include When Your Child Drives You Crazy, The...
  
   - child psychologist and author of books on parenting
• Carl P. Leubsdorf - Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
• Robert Levey - columnist, The Washington Post
  The Washington Post
  The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
  
  
• Doug Liman
  Doug Liman
  Douglas Eric "Doug" Liman is an American film director and producer best known for Swingers , The Bourne Identity , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , Jumper , and Fair Game .-Early life:...
  
   - director of the film Swingers
  Swingers (1996 film)
  Swingers is a 1996 comedy-drama film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival...
  
  
• Andrew Litton
  Andrew Litton
  Andrew Litton is an American orchestral conductor. Litton is a graduate of The Fieldston School, and holds both undergraduate and Masters degrees in music from Juilliard....
  
   - conductor, Dallas Symphony
• Douglas Lowenstein
  Douglas Lowenstein
  Douglas Lowenstein is the founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association . He resigned on February 12, 2007 to head up the newly formed Private Equity Council....
  
   - president and CEO of Private Equity Council
  Private Equity Council
  The Private Equity Growth Capital Council , formerly the Private Equity Council, is the lobbying, advocacy and research organization for the private equity industry. The PEC was founded by a consortium of the largest private equity firms globally...
  
  , founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
  Entertainment Software Association
  The Entertainment Software Association is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association and renamed on July 16, 2003...
  
  
• Douglas Lowy - co-creator of the HPV vaccine
  HPV vaccine
  The human papilloma virus vaccine prevents infection with certain species of human papillomavirus associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts, and some less common cancers...
  
  
• Staughton Lynd
  Staughton Lynd
  Staughton Craig Lynd is an American conscientious objector, Quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes has brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including...
  
   - an American conscientious objector, quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer
• Jeffrey Lyons
  Jeffrey Lyons (television critic)
  Jeffrey Lyons is an American television and film critic.-Life and career:Lyons was born in New York City, one of the four sons of Sylvia and Leonard Lyons...
  
   - film critic, WNBC-TV, New York
• Bob Marshall
  Bob Marshall (wilderness activist)
  Robert "Bob" Marshall was an American forester, writer and wilderness activist. The son of wealthy constitutional lawyer and conservationist Louis Marshall, Bob Marshall developed a love for the outdoors as a young child...
  
   - conservationist, writer, and the principal founder of The Wilderness Society
  The Wilderness Society (United States)
  The Wilderness Society is an American organization that is dedicated to protecting America's wilderness. It was formed in 1935 and currently has over 300,000 members and supporters.-Founding:The society was incorporated on January 21, 1935...
  
  
• Jane Mayer
  Jane Mayer
  Jane Mayer is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1995...
  
   - staff writer, The New Yorker
  The New Yorker
  The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
  
  
• Nicholas Meyer
  Nicholas Meyer
  Nicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, producer, director and novelist, known best for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature film series, and the 1983 television movie The Day After.Meyer graduated from...
  
   - noted film Director, directed Fieldston Alumnus Walter Koenig in both Star Trek II and Star Trek VI
• Jo Mielziner
  Jo Mielziner
  Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...
  
   - stage designer (South Pacific, Guys and Dolls)
• Marvin Minsky
  Marvin Minsky
  Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...
  
   - pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
• Frederic S. Mishkin - Governor of the Federal Reserve Board
• Robert M. Morgenthau
  Robert M. Morgenthau
  Robert Morris Morgenthau is an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County, the borough of Manhattan.-Early life:...
  
   - New York County District Attorney
• Robert Moses
  Robert Moses
  Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
  
   - (attended for two years, per Robert Caro
  Robert Caro
  Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his celebrated biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson...
  
  's Power Broker)
• Howard Nemerov
  Howard Nemerov
  Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
  
   - former United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   Poet Laureate
  Poet Laureate
  A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
  
  
• Gabriel Olds
  Gabriel Olds
  Gabriel Emerson Olds is an American actor and freelance writer. He is the son of poet Sharon Olds.-Acting career:Olds began acting at age 15 at The Public Theater in New York, in a performance of Measure for Measure in 1987. Soon after, he was cast in 14 Going on 30 , a two-part Disney Sunday...
  
   - actor, writer
• J. Robert Oppenheimer - physicist, Scientific Director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"
• Joel Perlman - artist
• Emanuel R. Piore
  Emanuel R. Piore
  Emanuel Ruben Piore was a scientist and a manager of industrial research.Piore was born on 19 July 1908 in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1917, his family moved to the United States, and in 1924, Emanuel Piore became a naturalized citizen of the United States.Piore obtained an undergraduate and a Ph.D...
  
   - chief scientist of IBM, and noted pioneer of electrical engineering
• Belva Plain
  Belva Plain
  Belva Plain , née Offenberg, was a best-selling American author of mainstream fiction. She was born in New York City.-Biography:...
  
   - author
• Letty Cottin Pogrebin
  Letty Cottin Pogrebin
  Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an American writer and journalist. She graduated from Brandeis University and became a writer and feminist advocate in the early 1970s. In 1971, she was one of the founding editors of Ms...
  
   - author
• Edward R. Pressman
  Edward R. Pressman
  Edward R. Pressman is an American film producer.Pressman was born in New York City, New York, the son of Lynn and Jack Pressman, known as the "King of Marbles", who founded the Pressman Toy Corporation.-Filmography:...
  
   - film producer
• Richard Ravitch
  Richard Ravitch
  Richard Ravitch is an American politician and businessman who served as the 75th Lieutenant Governor of New York from 2009 to 2010. He was appointed to the position in July 2009 by New York Governor David Paterson...
  
   - business and civic leader
• Menachem Z. Rosensaft
  Menachem Z. Rosensaft
  Menachem Z. Rosensaft, an attorney in New York and the Founding Chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors, is a leader of the Second Generation movement of children of survivors, and has been described on the front page of the New York Times as one of the most prominent...
  
   - noted attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
• Muriel Rukeyser
  Muriel Rukeyser
  Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism...
  
   - poet and playwright
• David Sarasohn
  David Sarasohn
  David Sarasohn is a columnist and managing editor for The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon. Prior to joining The Oregonian, Sarasohn was a writer with Oregon magazine and a professor of history at Reed College. He earned a PhD in American History at UCLA...
  
   - associate editor and syndicated columnist for the Oregonian
  Oregonian
  Oregonian may refer to:*Oregonian, a resident or native of the U.S. state of Oregon*the Oregonian , a train operated by the Oregon and California Railroad*The Oregonian, the daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, United States...
  
   newspaper (Portland)
• James H. Scheuer
  James H. Scheuer
  James Haas Scheuer was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. He was also affiliated with the Liberal Party of New York.-Family and education:...
  
   - U.S. Congressman (N.Y.)
• Gil Scott-Heron
  Gil Scott-Heron
  Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
  
   - musician
• Robert B. Sherman
  Robert B. Sherman
  Robert Bernard Sherman is an American songwriter who specializes in musical films with his brother Richard Morton Sherman...
  
   - composer, lyricist, screenwriter, painter
• Stephen Slesinger
  Stephen Slesinger
  Stephen Slesinger , was an American radio/television/film producer, creator of comic strip characters and the father of the licensing industry...
  
   - creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
• Tess Slesinger
  Tess Slesinger
  Tess Slesinger was a Jewish-American writer and screenwriter and is credited as being a charter member of the New York intellectual scene....
  
   - author/screenwriter
• Stephen Sondheim
  Stephen Sondheim
  Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
  
   - composer, attended the Fieldston Lower School
• Dan Squadron
  Dan Squadron
  Daniel Squadron is the state senator for the 25th district of the New York State Senate. He is a Democrat. The 25th Senate District covers lower Manhattan and an area of Brooklyn down the East River from part of Greenpoint to Carroll Gardens, and eastward to part of Downtown Brooklyn.Before his...
  
   - New York State Senator
  New York State Senate
  The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
  
  
• Andy Stein
  Andy Stein
  Andy Stein is a saxophone and violin player in the United States best known for his appearances with the country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. He is also known for the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" and the movie. He has played on a...
  
   - Musician frequently on Prairie Home Companion
• Stewart Stern
  Stewart Stern
  Stewart Stern is a two-time Oscar-nominated and Emmy award winning American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the iconic film Rebel Without A Cause , starring James Dean.-Writing:...
  
   - screenwriter (Rebel Without a Cause
  Rebel Without a Cause
  Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
  
  )
• Paul Strand
  Paul Strand
  Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century...
  
   - photographer and filmmaker
• Thomas Strauss - former president of Salomon Brothers
• James Toback
  James Toback
  James Lee Toback is an American screenwriter and film director.-Early life:Toback was born in New York City. His mother, Selma Judith , was a President of The League of Women Voters and a moderator of political debates on NBC. His father, Irwin Lionel Toback, was a stockbroker and former...
  
   - filmmaker
• Richard Tofel
  Richard Tofel
  Richard Tofel is the general manager of ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism organization in New York.Previously, he was the president and chief operating officer of the International Freedom Center. Mr. Tofel took over that position in October 2004.Mr...
  
   - author
• Doris Ulmann
  Doris Ulmann
  Doris Ulmann was an American photographer, best known for her dignified portraits of the people of Appalachia, particularly craftsmen and musicians such as Jean Ritchie's family, made between 1928 and 1934.-Life and career:...
  
   - photographer of Appalachia
• Laurence Urdang
  Laurence Urdang
  Laurence Urdang was a lexicographer, editor and author noted for first computerising the unabridged Random House Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1966. He was also the founding editor of Verbatim, a quarterly newsletter on language.Urdang was born in Manhattan and graduated from...
  
   - lexicographer, dictionary editor
• Barbara Walters
  Barbara Walters
  Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
  
   - TV news broadcaster
• Andrew Weisblum
  Andrew Weisblum
  Andrew Weisblum is a film editor and a visual effects editor. He has collaborated frequently with directors Darren Aronofsky and Wes Anderson. Weisblum was nominated a American Cinema Editors's Eddie Award for Best Edited Animated Feature Film for his work on Fantastic Mr...
  
   - oscar nominated film editor Black Swan
  Black Swan (film)
  Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to...
  
  
• Howard Wolfson
  Howard Wolfson
  Howard Wolfson is counselor to the Mayor of New York City and a Democratic political strategist. He replaced Kevin Sheekey as Deputy Mayor of New York City for governmental affairs....
  
   - political operative and deputy mayor of New York City
• Keith L. T. Wright
  Keith L. T. Wright
  Keith L. T. Wright is an American politician and a member of the New York State Assembly. He was first elected to the assembly in 1992 and has been reelected ever since. In early 2007, he proposed a bill limiting retail sale of violent video games to individuals below 30 years of age. This...
  
   - New York State Senator
  New York State Senate
  The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
  
  
• Sheryl WuDunn
  Sheryl WuDunn
  Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American business executive, author, lecturer, and the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line firms, alternative energy issues,...
  
   - former award-winning writer for the NYTimes
• Eden Wurmfeld - producer of the film Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein is a 2001 independent romantic comedy film, written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film also stars Tovah Feldshuh and is directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld...
  
  
• Eli Zabar
  Zabar's
  Zabar's is a specialty food store at 2245 Broadway and 80th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, founded by Louis Zabar. It is one of the best known commercial landmarks of the neighborhood, and is known for its selection of bagels, smoked fish, olives, and cheeses...
  
   - NYC restaurateur

Because of its prominence as one of New York City's top independent schools, many famous "movers and shakers" in entertainment, politics, news, business and the arts have sent their children to ECS-Fieldston over the past 100 years; many families have multi-generational alumni.

Peer schools

Ethical Culture Fieldston is a part of the Ivy Preparatory School League

Ivy Preparatory School League

The Ivy Preparatory School League, like the Ivy League for universities, was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, for a group of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk county university-preparatory schools: Hackley School, Tarrytown, Trinity School, Manhattan, Riverdale...

, with many of the city's elite private schools. The high schools of Fieldston, Riverdale

Riverdale Country School

Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City. One of the most competitive private schools in the nation, it is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York.-History:Founded in 1907 by Dr...

, and Horace Mann together are known as the "Hill schools", as all three are located within a short walking distance of each other in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, on a hilly area above Van Cortlandt Park

Van Cortlandt Park

Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the fourth largest park in New York City, behind Pelham Bay Park, Flushing Meadows Park and Staten Island Greenbelt....

. The three also share perhaps the greatest amount of inter-school sports rivalry.