Regarding Flying and Nonflying.

I'm new to magic, and have someone teaching me.

However one thing has come up in regards to flying.

He has a bird deck and says that creatures with nonflying can't attack the opponent if he has only flying birds on the field.

For instance:

He has 3 1/1 bird tokens with flying and 3 life left.

I have 5 3/3 Elephants from a tuskcaller thing.

I said I wanted to attack him (which would effectively end the game, from what I understand.) to which he says:

Creatures without flying can not attack creatures with flying.

So I played along.

Though from what I understand, you never attack creatures directly. Attacks are player>player. Of which the defender can choose to block with a creature (flying or not).

So can I attack him?

Of course you can. I have no idea what your opponent was talking about, but he's completely wrong.

Yeah, I don't think the person teaching you knows the rules very well, if at all. If you have any more questions about the game, you should ask here, and also read up on the basic rules on the Wizards of the Coast website.