The Ethical Culture Fieldston School was founded by the humanitarian leader Felix Adler in 1878 to ensure that all children would have access to a quality education. Then known as the Workingman’s School, it emphasized moral education, psychological development, and integration of the creative and manual arts with academics — key components of what we now know as progressive education.
In 1895, the Workingman’s School became the Ethical Culture School and its management passed to the governing board of the Ethical Culture Society. In 1899, the School established a secondary school.
In 1904, the Ethical Culture School constructed a new building at 33 Central Park West, which currently houses the Ethical Culture division, one of our two lower schools. By the mid-1920s, the School had outgrown its quarters and sought to expand its vision for both primary and secondary education. In 1928, the School opened a beautiful wooded campus in the Bronx. A second lower school, Fieldston Lower, followed on the Bronx campus in 1932.
In 1995, the New York Society for Ethical Culture voted to set up the School as its own legal entity with a self-governing board of trustees.
In 2007, we opened Fieldston Middle, also on the Bronx campus.
Our Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Wilkie-Glass, began his tenure as CEO in the winter of 2024. Click here to read a welcome note from our leadership.
