 This upbringing led to Elsa Simonson socializing with modernist artists such as Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Florine Stettheimer, and William and Marguerite Zorach.From 1922 to 1932, Milius attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, which contradicted the views of her father by teaching racial equality, social justice and intellectual freedom.Her teachings at Fieldston led her to be called a "rebel" as a youth, protesting the double standards of the upper class.