bartolemew t1_iu8gliw wrote on October 29, 2022 at 11:14 AM

Reply to comment by Kingjoe97034 in Eli5: How is it possible for someone to speak English, but not be able to read or write it ? by Aboutfun

Are you saying farmers are uneducated and don’t go to school? SMH

Kingjoe97034 t1_iu8gp8u wrote on October 29, 2022 at 11:15 AM

No, I mean that historically, there is way less need to read on a farm than in a law office. I’m thinking 1820, not 2020.

ZacQuicksilver t1_iubzv9h wrote on October 30, 2022 at 4:11 AM

Actually, literacy is actually a lot higher in historical England than the records indicate. This is because "literacy" was measured in Latin, not English; and as such there were a significant (likely over 25% of the population) number of "illiterate" people who could read and write English at the equivalent of a modern 8th-grade level.