[greymule]

I equate English teachers with pompous chefs who adapt and serve dishes to their personal liking and damn the customer.

There are certainly people who like to feel superior to others by correcting their grammar and word usage. Many people, for example, view President Bush with contempt and condescension because his sentences sometimes don't hang together and he sometimes mispronounces words (like nuclear). It is entertaining to hear the pseudo-sophisticates talk, though. They are constantly using whom where who belongs, uttering erudite phrases like "just between she and I," and mispronouncing fancy words whose meaning they don't really know. But it makes them sound intelligent (they think).

Remember when the teacher asked you what you did over the weekend, and you answered, "Me and Peter went to the circus"? The teacher then told you not to say "me and Peter" but instead to say "Peter and I." So now business executives write sentences like "please send the information to Peter and I." There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of common errors that stem from faulty explanations in school.