This story originally appeared in The Laker in September 2021. We are looking for help in locating a former Golden Rule resident, Simon Pick, who attended the Union School in Northfield until he was expelled from sixth grade in 1955. A classmate recalls that Simon had a run-in with a teacher, after which he “disappeared” from school, and what happened to him after that has remained a mystery. If anyone has any knowledge of Simon, please email [email protected].
Stone columns and a historical marker on an abandoned road are the only physical remains of a unique program that aimed to prepare young men (and a few young women) for adulthood in the early 20th century, but the legacy of Franklin’s Golden Rule Farm lives on, meeting other needs, in the form of Spaulding Academy and Family Services in Northfield.