Newtown Historical Society representatives opened the Little Red Schoolhouse on the grounds of Middle Gate Elementary School on Sunday, September 20, to conduct classes inside the historic schoolhouse and offer recess activities on the lawn.

Costumed docents — Mike Asselta, Barbara Wilson, Maren Brady, and Kimmie Johnson — welcomed the participants for class just after 12:30 pm. The event was held for children between 5 and 10 years old.

Docents shared details of what learning in the 1700s to 1800s would have been like, including punishments students would have had for poor behavior, games that would have been played, and the type of lessons that would have been taught.

According to the Newtown Historical Society, the Little Red Schoolhouse was built in 1850, replacing an earlier 1753 building, and it was located on the Newtown-Bridgeport Turnpike, modern Route 25, at Toll Gate Hill. The name Middle Gate arises from the fact that the location just north of the Monroe border was the middle one of the toll gates on the turnpike, according to the society. The building was moved to its present location in 1973, according to the society.

If students behaved poorly, Master Asselta told the students punishments ranged from standing in the corner of the room with a pile of wood in the student's arms to wearing a dunce cap. A dunce cap was handed around the room for students to try on.

Mistress Barbara explained some of the other differences between students learning in classrooms now and when school was in session in the one-room schoolhouse.

Today, Mistress Barbara said, students have access to a lot of books, but books were not always so easy to come by. Mistress Barbara said students attending the Little Red Schoolhouse may have used McGuffey's readers as workbooks to read through. Instead of grade levels, completing the books, she said, marked how accomplished a student was. Before the McGuffey's books were available, Mistress Barbara said a bible would have been used by students to learn to read. Maps and globes may have been used, according to Mistress Barbara, but as new discoveries were being made frequently, the maps and globes in classrooms may not have always been accurate or up to date.

Students learned a lot through memorization, according to Mistress Barbara.

Each student on Sunday was given a slate and a piece of chalk to practice writing lessons.

Master Mike also spoke to the students about the design of the school house. Noting the number of feet around the room that could not touch the floor, Master Mike said the bench-like seating and desk table tops arranged along three walls of the room facing out were designed like that for a reason. Students were less likely to fidget if their feet did not touch the ground, according to Master Mike.

Following the lessons in the Little Red Schoolhouse, recess activities were played on the grounds.