Because Jem is older than Scout, and she is in the first grade while he is in the 5th grade, he doesn’t want Scout to bother him or embarrass him at school. He doesn’t want her to ask him to play games or even talk to him. Jem is at the age where peer pressure is starting to affect him, and he would be embarrassed if she interrupted time with his friends with silly games. He probably doesn’t want his friends to know that he still plays with his little sister. And besides, Jem is a little perturbed that Scout won’t act more like a girl.
Scout tells us that Jem gives her these orders on the first day of school:
During school hours I was not to bother him, I was not to approach him with requests to enact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass him with references to his private life, or tag along behind him at recess and noon. I was to stick with the first grade and he would stick with the fifth. In short, I was to leave him alone.
Jem is growing up, and can’t risk the other fellows in his class thinking he is still playing childish games with his baby sister; and therefore, he sets some ground rules for Scout to follow.
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