Fourth grader Justin Dungan eyed the stool and dunce cap in the front corner of the room.
"That was used for children who didn't do their work," said Mistress Susan. "They were also punished by being whipped or hit."
Justin and classmate Dan Lannon said they didn't like the idea of being whipped.
"It must have really been tough on the kids back then," said Chris Dunn, also a fourth grader. "I'm glad I wasn't a student then, it was too hard and too strict."
Mistress Jane and Mistress Susan, also known as the historical society's Jane Vardaro and Susan Kratzinger, talked about what it was like to attend school with students ages 5 to 20 in one room without electricity and plumbing.
"It was called a federal school in the 18th century because people were proud of the federation of the United States," Kratzinger said. "It was a subscription school where parents had to pay either with money, food or lodging for the schoolmaster or schoolmistress for their children to attend." by 1849, she said, it was converted to a public school.
After Mistress Jane reviewed the class rules, including "mind to have your hands and faces washed and your heads combed, tell no untruths or miscall another and to mind the teacher," they sewed several pieces of paper together to make a copy book for their schoolwork.
As the girls worked on penmanship with quill pens and ink, the boys used slate chalkboards and wipes and worked on ciphering, or solving, math problems.
"I like doing my math problems with chalk," Chris Dunn said. "We usually do them with pencil." Though the boys often had to be reminded not to slam their slates on the desktops, most had all 24 problems correct.
