Some teachers think their opinions are absolute and students are always mistaken.

This student narrates how they wrote an English report and used a certain phrase that their teacher marked wrong and “nonsense.”

To prove that they were correct, they brought a big, heavy dictionary and slammed it to their teacher, showing that English words they used.

Read the full story below.

It’s not my fault you don’t know the language you teach!

This was a long time ago.

Internet was around and fairly accessible, but not not everyone had a laptop.

Some were university students, some were working professionals.

Think about Civ 4-5 for the nerds.

This student was taking English as a second language subject in high school.

I was in HS, and since this didn’t take place in the US, we had classes in English as second language.

My parents had been expats before having kid, and worked with English-speak professionals.

So, I was lucky to be able to get help when I needed it.

They wrote an English phrase, but their teacher marked it wrong.

I had to write a report and wanted it to be good.

So when I struggled to find a word for a concept I had in mind, my dad helped me out and suggested “creature comforts.”

You can guess what happened.

The report was returned with red marks for writing nonsense.

So they brought a dictionary to school and showed the phrase to their teacher.

My petty revenge:

My dad owned a Webster’s unabridged dictionary and it was a beast of a book.

I couldn’t fit it in my backpack, but I brought it anyway and showed her exactly where it was found and what it meant.

Never got an apology or revised mark, but it was satisfying to slam that jerk on the table.

Let’s check out how others react to this.

Well done, says this user.

This one was reminded of their giant Webster dictionary.

A Civ nerd speaks up.

Finally, a non-native speaker shares their past experience.

Sometimes, the student is smarter than the teacher.

It’s always good if they can admit it when that happens!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.