Spanish Ordeal

Of the many visiting American professors who have taught in Europe, few have had a more distinguished group of students than Economist Wayne M.c-Naughton of U.C.L.A. Attending his course on all-round American-style executivemanship at Madrid's School of Industrial Organization were some of Spain's most prominent businessmen and politicians, e.g., Lawyer Buenaventura Fernandez Crehuet, member of the Cortes, and Dr. Francisco Javier Fernandez Avila, brother of the director of the government's Industrial Productivity Commission. Though he had to work through an interpreter, McNaughton thought he was getting along just fine--until one day he decided to give the class a test.

No sooner had he written his ten questions on the blackboard than twelve of his 16 students began following an old Spanish custom by discussing the questions aloud and threshing out their answers. During the whole two hours they peered at one another's papers, passed around notes, kept up a constant chatter. McNaughton begged in vain for silence. When he asked three of the most recalcitrant students to move to other desks, one flatly refused. Finally, the desperate professor implored his interpreter to intervene. Scandalized, the interpreter declared that he could not possibly tell his social superiors how to behave.

The whole affair was soon all over Madrid. At one point McNaughton told the press that he had even complained to the director of the school, only to be reprimanded for giving such prominent men a test in the first place. But last week McNaughton faced one more ordeal before leaving for home: final examinations. Said he resignedly: "They're just a formality. I've been ordered not to base my grades on the exams. I couldn't anyhow. They're all going to compare answers, and I can't flunk anyone."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.