The Chicago Daily News reports of a lecture given which was pure and simple nonsense. The speaker was introduced as Dr. Myron L. Fox and given an ambiguous, high-sounding title to the audience. The master of ceremonies said that Dr. Fox was an authority on the application of mathematics to human behavior, and that his subject would be “Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physical Education.”

Actually, “Dr. Fox” was an actor, hired by three medical educationists. It fooled the 44 educationists, school administrators, psychologists, and social workers. Not one of them realized it was a hoax, although one did say it was “too intellectual a presentation.”

The idea behind this set-up was to prove a hypothesis: “Given a sufficiently impressive lecture paradigm, an experienced group of educationists, participating in a new learning situation, can feel satisfied that they have learned—despite irrelevant, conflicting, and meaningless content conveyed by the lecturer.”

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. – 2 Timothy 4:3

*Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.