I had never taught children below the seventh grade until the spring of 1986. I was astonished. Experienced teachers learn quickly to assess whether a child is being rebellious or just acting his age. I read the child's demeanor and was sure it was not rebellion stimulating the interruption, but then the alternative explanation of just acting his age didn't fit any of the textbook predictions of how young children react. The experts who wrote my textbooks tell us classroom teachers that little children despise structure.
Structure is an educational term which means routine, schedules, rote activity, and such things.
The experts, as a matter of fact, regard anything other than free play as deadening to early child development. Yet here was a child demanding that the schedule be followed more closely. It was not just in the classroom that this hunger for order, predictability, and structure was apparent. On the playground, the children would ask me to referee. They were most happy when they were playing games that were familiar.