History repeats

I peep through the gate,, children are helter-skelter within the compound..I looked into my watch.. Oh !Does the school start at 11 am?? No, the watch showed 10 minutes past 11. Feeling shocked I asked the vendor of local snacks out side the gate if the school was on.. He said, ‘yes’….How do I get in?’ I asked. He called out some name and soon a staff of the school appeared on the other side and opened the lock for me. Thanking her I walked in. What I saw was nothing new to me ..teachers all sitting in the sun in small groups. But there seemed to be more adults around walking from place to place…A teacher whom I had met earlier got up and walked to meet me and I asked her to direct me to the ECD class. She eagerly took me into the class. But why was she outside?? She was the ECD teacher! The children were left alone in the class!!All were given writing tasks . There were some 40 odd children seated neatly on benches. Surprisingly the class was not very noisy. I asked her to show me class 1 and 2. We walked in the corridor to enter class 1. What a mess! The teacher who I learnt was a student teacher was at his wits to keep the children listen to him! The children seemed to have a gala time knowing well that he was new to the job. He suddenly went to a group of kids and hit them on their heads with the textbook that was in his hand..and cried” I am trying to teach them! They are not keeping quiet!”.I was bemused not knowing to feel sorry or have a hearty laugh. What I saw was history repeating as I had seen some teachers with 20-30 yeas experience behaving with the children as the novice did !!