BERLIN TOWNSHIP, PA — The public is invited to an open house at Bethel School, Wayne County’s best-preserved one-room school, on Sunday, June 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be a special presentation at 2 p.m. by Janet Mishkin about the roots of education in early Pennsylvania. The 18th and early 19th centuries were the heyday era of one-room schools, where one ingenious teacher was assigned to teach students in grades one through eight. As many as 40 students were enrolled in an individual school. Mishkin is an adjunct history instructor at East Stroudsburg University, and she is the administrator of Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm, located just outside Stroudsburg.

Pennsylvania’s leadership in public education began with the fight for free public schools in the 1830s. Led by Timothy Pickering, Samuel Breck, and Thaddeus Stevens, a Free School Act was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1834, but the act was only saved and became law through one of the greatest speeches in Pennsylvania history given by Thaddeus Stevens.

Bethel School is the only remaining one-room school out of 10 that once dotted the landscape of Berlin Township. In 1951, it was the last in Berlin Township to close, but was locked up and left unchanged until it was reopened for historic presentations in 1998. There will be more open houses this summer, on June 28, July 12, August 2 and August 30. The school is located on Bethel School Road, one mile off Route 652. Call 570/253-3240.