"It's--unconventional, at any rate," Lessing snapped.
"Well, that depends on your standards. Sounds like a country day
school, from what I've heard. According to your papers, you've even
used conventional statistical analysis on your data from up here."
"Until we had to throw it out. We discovered that what we were trying
to measure didn't make sense in a statistical analysis."
"Of course, you're sure you were measuring _something_."
"Oh, yes. We certainly were."
"Yet you said that you didn't know what."
"That's right," said Lessing. "We don't."
"And you don't know _why_ your instruments measure whatever they're
measuring." The Chicago man's face was thoughtful. "In fact, you can't
really be certain that your instruments are measuring the children at
all. It's not inconceivable that the _children_ might be measuring the
_instruments_, eh?"