A puzzling characteristic

As I sat on a bench outside the chemistry Lab, I observed a behavior of two students with a senior teacher that left me puzzled completely. It is not the first time I am observing this. It has happened many times in my class, and at first I used to think it was of course the "new/foreign" teacher aspect that made them believe they could behave that way... ["You mean you've never been a governess before?" ... "the Sound of Music", of course!] But now I am observing this everywhere and many teachers talk of it. So what was the incident? Revenons à nos moutons! The teacher is taking her class somewhere and two students want to have a drink of water before going. They just passed a water fountain. She says no, they must follow her right away. They stood there for more than 5 minutes arguing about it without any resolution. In the meantime the rest of class is long gone! People here have a way of insisting when asking for something that is mind boggling in their perseverance! One of the ways of dealing with a misbehaving child here is to ask them to stand at the door of the class for a while. That child can drive any respectable person insane in just about 3 minutes! (in the picture, my latest victim!) He/she will say "I'm sorry, Mam/Sir" nonstop the whole time he's standing there. No matter what you say, they will just keep repeating it till you either give in, and let them come back in (...and they start again whatever behavior got you there in the first place!), or you suddenly from a calm human being become a totally frustrated person with thoughts of vengeance coming in your mind! OK, you are going to love this one because it so totally out of alignment with all educational philosophies, I've made threats to them that I KNOW I cannot uphold!! Looking at them straight in the eyes, I'd say "If you say it ONE more time I will not allow you to ever come back to my class!" Once after I said this, I did crack up laughing right there in that child's face and poor him not knowing what to do, should he laugh with me or cry, just stared while I had the best laugh of my life ("Laugh till I cry" ... "Bucket List")! A lovely colleague of mine in the Chemistry department told me "they do it to irritate you!" Well, if that’s the objective, they succeed every time! No really, it is a strange situation. The thing is both teachers and students do it! Once they have something in their mind nothing will get it out! Many experiences of that I've had. And it’s like you’re talking to a wall! With the least bit of expression, they will repeat their point till you eventually give in. You feel, there is a communication gap somewhere. I mean this teacher stood there arguing with the kids to march and they had their own thoughts to drink water and nothing was going to make them march and she was not about to allow them to do so. How did it all end?... The teacher went back with the kids to the fountain! Yes, this is why they insist, they know in the end they will get their way!
When a child asks you for money in the streets, she will stand there and repeat the SAME words over and over again as long as you are standing there. She won’t change her expression, she won’t change her line and will NOT leave! “10 Rs., Mam, no food, no Mama” over and over again in the same tone. (The interrogation in “The Lives of Others”!! Is she lying?!) Some of you are thinking, why not just give her the 10 Rs., she sure can use it, and be done with it? Because if you do, no matter how you may think this child was alone, as soon as you give this one person, a dozen of them immediately surround you for their 10 Rs.!!!
The puzzling characteristic here is the often inability for people to understand the word “no”. It feels really that it has no meaning for many. I would really like to understand!