Class is in session, except it’s quite a different experience for students in a one-room schoolhouse.

“It’s really tiny because this is pretty much the size of two classrooms in our school,” said 11-year-old Summer.

“I like that it’s only one room,” 7-year-old Andrew Lutz said.

“I think it’s cool that a bunch of grades get to be in here,” 11-year-old Jesse Rafferty said.

For a morning, white boards are replaced with chalkboards at the Blansingburg Schoolhouse in Wall Township. It was built in 1855 and opened a year later. Ninety-six students were enrolled in the first class, which was Kindergarten through eighth grade.

“Now, there were never that many back in 1856. School was not mandatory, so if your parents needed help with farming at home, or your mother just had a child, or a sick child, the girls would stay home,” said Old Wall Historical Society President De Hearn.

The New Jersey Historic Preservation Office indicates the earliest school buildings in the state had one room. Newark opened a school in 1677 and other towns followed, although classes may have been conducted in homes or meeting houses because there weren’t enough students to warrant a dedicated school building. Today, the Old Wall Historical Society invites students to experience life as it was in the mid-1800s — the girls are given handmade pinafores and suspenders for the boys.

“Oh, I love this dress. It’s very comfortable, but now we get to wear whatever we want to school,” Summer said.

They learn how to curtsy, or bow, and what happens when students back then misbehaved.

“We don’t have a time out corner in our school,” commented 9-year-old Van Stumley.

“I think the big thing is the kids don’t realize without their electronics, what do they do? So we teach them or ask them what kind of games you would have played back in those days. We tell them what the punishments would be. We tell them about what the teachers could or could not do. Like, I would have been fired because I’m wearing a bright dress, that was not allowed. I would have been fired because I dye my hair, that was not allowed,” said Old Wall Historical Society Secretary Donna Lippincott.

The rules for teachers were extensive: women couldn’t marry during their contract, keep company with men, dresses couldn’t be more than two inches above the ankle, and the list goes on.

“I can’t imagine, quite frankly, teaching so many different levels of students in one room, knowing what it takes to prepare for one class, one age group,” said volunteer Jacqueline Behson, who’s a retired high school teacher.

The schoolhouse is filled with original pieces, like the double desks and a chalkboard.

The school closed in 1936 and students then moved on to a two-room school house. A local businessman purchased the building for $200, it was actually on his property at the time. It was used as a lawn mower repair shop until 1999, and at that point the family donated the schoolhouse to the township. Then Hearn suggested moving it four miles so that it would be on the same property as other historic township museums on New Bedford Road.

During the grand opening in 2001, some of the students enrolled in 1936 reunited for the day. Although kids now attend much larger schools, they’re still learning history lessons here.