“Thank You” For The Grade

(Spanish class.)

Teacher: “All right, everyone, here are your assignments from last week.”

(She passes them out: an assignment where we had to write a letter to a friend in Spanish. I see that, very unusually for me, I got a ‘B’.)

Me: “Profesora, you marked off because I didn’t start with ‘Dear So-and-So,’ but the instructions say to begin with a thank you.”

Teacher: “I know, but you should always begin a letter by saying ‘Dear person.’”

Me: “But the instructions say to begin with a thank you.”

Teacher: “Yes, but you should always begin a letter with a salutation.”

Me: “Yes, I know to start a letter by saying ‘Dear person,’ and the only reason I didn’t do it that way is because of the instructions.”

(One other student, who had done the same thing, and I ended up staying after class to try to argue the point. The teacher kept saying, “We’ll just have to agree to disagree!” and I kept saying, “Fine, we disagree, but can I have the points? Since I made the mistake because I was following the directions?” She wouldn’t budge.)