Ethics and Community Service Learning
At Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Ethics is a core academic subject. We require all our students to complete coursework that identifies moral and social intersections, draws on the School’s ethical humanist traditions, and expands their understanding of the larger field of ethics. A key component of our Ethics curriculum is our Community Service Learning (CSL) program, which directly responds to the issues our students experience and witness in the world.
We introduce Ethics to the curriculum starting in both of our lower school divisions and continue it throughout all three years of Fieldston Middle. At Fieldston Upper, students take a series of foundational courses before choosing from a range of electives in philosophy, psychology, comparative religion, and contemporary social justice issues. These courses familiarize our students with the complexities and dimensions of social structures and equity. Practice and theory come together in the action arm of the Ethics curriculum: our comprehensive Community Service Learning (CSL) program.
At Ethical Culture and Fieldston Lower, our goal is to create a comprehensive experience for students to engage in activism, centered around raising awareness, advocating for social issues, engaging with service projects, and supporting causes within the surrounding community and beyond. Read more about Ethical Culture’s curriculum here and Fieldston Lower’s curriculum here.
The focus on Ethics and service continues through Fieldston Middle, where classroom experiences are designed to prepare students to participate in service learning projects. Students also explore activism and allyship, and spend time considering the causes they want to support. Read more about Fieldston Middle’s curriculum here.
Fieldston Upper students build connections with community partners through shared study, preparation, execution, and reflection. These programs occur through supervised placement in a community agency or through a facilitated classroom experience. Our students have access to a robust set of CSL classes, including a three-year sequence that studies community non-profits and advocacy. Read more about the Fieldston Upper’s curriculum here.
Our Ethics and CSL programs represent a diverse array of student leaders, community partners, and faculty and staff committed to ethical action in our city and beyond. Working as engaged citizens, students apply their learning to local communities living out the ECFS mission.
