man bites dog

Did anyone else have this experience in school?

I encountered the phrase "Man Bites Dog" in 2 different English classes, taught by 2 different English teachers, who used it to illustrate 2 very different points -- possibly incompatible points.

In a class on writing, it was used to make a point about "hooks":
No one will read a story called "Dog Bites Man" but most will read a "Man Bites Dog" story.

Whereas the linguistics teacher, in talking about why it's important to be able to parse and diagram sentence structure, made a point I later encountered in a psychology class as well, which is that most people can't correctly read the sentence "Man bites dog."

They turn it around in their heads to "Dog bites man," or to "Man bitten by dog."