But such practical observations are often lost on educational enthusiasts who claim to have found the magic key to education, a discovery that has eluded so many others.

My brother-in-law the chemical engineer, always practical, demanded, “Why do they experiment like this?” I suggested it is because many careers are built on just this kind of experimentation, careers that range from the university research level down to the state and local administrative levels. New theories are good for tenure and promotion and a clever way for bureaucrats to stay in power.

It is, however, past time to adopt a healthy suspicion of experimentation in the classroom, whether those experiments are in the area of sex education, bilingual education, or “exciting new ways” to read and do math. Perhaps only in the context of modern American education could Alfie Kohn, an educational theorist, assert, “I am suspicious of the very word ‘discipline’—perhaps because of its proximity to ‘bondage.’’’ We proceed more carefully when training dogs. After all, a good Labrador Retriever is worth a lot of money.

American educators and administrators should adopt the medical profession motto, “First, do no harm.” Teachers, the real heroes and heroines in education, are frustrated to the point of tears at having to endure one ill-conceived change after another. Many programs packaged as “better ideas” constitute an impossible burden for instructors. Teachers can survive unruly and apathetic students, petulant parents, and insufficient funding. Even the best teachers, though, may not long endure the relentless “reforms” imposed upon them from above by their own professions and bureaucracies. It is a wonder that many teach at all; unfortunately, many of the best no longer do, having long ago been driven to despair.

Another frustrated elementary teacher observed of the recent changes imposed on his school: “The maddening thing is that in a few years, all these new requirements will be scrapped in favor of a whole new package of ‘better’ ideas.” The teaching profession is losing teachers, forcing schools to resort to extreme measures at times to keep a warm body in the classroom.

For the good of both students and teachers, the burden of proof should be on those who want to disrupt learning by introducing “fuzzy math,” “whole language,” “values clarification” and the like. Parents and teachers should not be in the position of having to constantly assume a defensive posture against an onslaught of “improvement.”

Experimentation has become the unquestioned norm in our classrooms. Many educrats feel something is wrong is they are not trying out a new theory on our hapless students.

Consequently, on the front lines, schools must grapple with fads frequently imposed by the educational bureaucrats to whom they are subordinate. Schools are regularly thrown into disorder by frequent redesigns of the curriculum based on the “latest research” and teachers spend all their energy trying to satisfy administrative dictates, rather than attending to the main business of teaching.

As I arrived in Chicago, a pleasant spring snow was fast turning into a messy, dangerous wind driven slush. In retrospect, the downturn in weather was not a bad metaphor for the ruinous experimentation promoted by the education conference just underway.

Unfortunately, stopping all of this nonsense will be as difficult as it would have been to stop the bad weather in Chicago.