In a barren room in Paris' venerable Sorbonne, a dimpled blonde teen-ager stood quaking before five quizzical professors. With quavering chalk she diagramed on a blackboard the working of a steam engine. Then, taking up other items of her examination, she stumbled through an account of the history of Japan from 1875 to 1905, explained the functioning of an eardrum and expounded her ideas on the philosophical principles of mathematics. When it was over she tremblingly left the room and, whispering "My stomach aches," took her place with other waiting youngsters.
Eighteen-year-old Denise Chambon was one victim of the annual bac (baccalaureate...
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