Golden Rule Days honors Reba Otto Steck, a local teacher whose passion and dedication to her job touched the lives of many in our community. The sculpture is a tribute to the formative and vital role of education in this community.

Throughout her 48 year career, which started in 1914, she employed her students to recite a version of the golden rule, “We’ll treat everyone the way we want to be treated.” Guided by this principle, when school officials refused to admit a black student years before the civil rights movement, it is said that Steck told her students they could no longer begin their day by repeating the golden rule. Her students talked to their parents about the injustice and school officials ultimately integrated the school.