The purpose of this paper is to show that in object-oriented programming (e.g., in SIMULA 67 and Beta) block structure--when procedures, classes, and blocks can be textually nested--is a natural and powerful mechanism. From this viewpoint a critique is given of Smalltalk-80, in which this facility is abandoned. The discussion is supported by many examples written in a subset of Beta. The author states that the notion of Smalltalk-80 metaclasses is nothing more than a technical trick and can also be handled by traditional block structure constructs. But Smalltalk adherents can argue with this point because they can make the opposite simulation, and the discussion moves into the sphere of programming styles.