The More Things Change...

Here's some timeless bon mots from Medieval students, parents and teachers....

“ a student's first song is a demand for money, and there will never be a letter which does not ask for cash." - a parent

"...as it has now been two months since I spent the last of what you sent me. The city is expensive and makes many demands; I have to rent lodgings, buy necessaries, and provide for many other things which I cannot now specify." - a student

"that you do not study in your room or act in the schools as a good student should, but play and wander about, disobedient to your master and indulging in sport and in certain other dishonorable practices which I do not now care to explain by letter." - a parent

"for one may always get a wife, but science once lost can never be recovered." - a student

"They attend classes but make no effort to learn anything..." - a teacher

"... they wish to be above their masters, impugning their statements more with a certain wrong-headedness than with reason." - a teacher

"They have among themselves evil and disgraceful societies, associating together for ill. And while in residence they sometimes are guilty of vice..." - a teacher

"They are disobedient to the masters and rectors of the university... for which they should be subject to blows of the rod..." - a teacher

"...if they go to church, it is not for worship, but to see the girls or swap stories." - a teacher

"The expense of money which they have from their parents or churches they spend in taverns, conviviality, games and other superfluities, and so return home empty without knowledge, conscience, or money." - a teacher

"They become masters of error..."

Sound familiar?

From: Charles Homer Haskins, The Life of Medieval Students as Illustrated by their Letters,
The American Historical Review, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Jan., 1898), pp. 203-229.