subject again.For the medieval student, paper was not available. Students would attend classes for six hours each day. Notes for the lectures were taken on wax tablets. Each student had a set number of wax tablets and therefore had to transcribe the notes each day. After class, the student would go to his room and transcribe the notes onto animal skins. This forced the student to spend time studying while the contents of the lecture were fresh on his mind. This forced the student to pay attention to the details of the lecture. Medieval students were much more serious about learning.An additional disadvantage for today's student is the age at which he starts a university. Today a student starts grammar school around the age of five. He continues through junior and senior high schools and enters the university at eighteen. Most of his grammar and junior high school curriculum is based on basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. The curriculum is taken slowly and often a great amount of time is spent repeating the previous year's content. Foreign language is not introduced until the senior high school and is only instructed for two years. The average student is in school for twelve years before entering the university.For the medieval student, he attends today's equivalent of a grammar school, a cathedral school, until he reaches the age of twelve. He has studied, extensively, Latin grammar and was assumed to know it thoroughly before entering the university setting. This student must know a great deal of educational information in order to succeed at the university. The student is also very mature for his young age.As noted earlier, today's student has many advantages over the medieval student. However, the medieval student had some great advantages as well. a medieval student appreciated his chance at learning and took his studies seriously. Too bad today's student cannot say the same....
