The Growth of a Literate Culture

The continuous rise in the proportions of brides and grooms able to write their names in the marriage register (outlined in earlier chapters) is not in itself evidence that those who signed in one decade were any better educated than those who did so in earlier ones. It can indicate only that progressively more people in their late 20s were attaining the same basic level of education. Yet common sense suggests that the growing proportions of each generation of the population receiving years of formal schooling cannot but have had a beneficial effect on the quality of education in the nation as a whole. One likely manifestation of this is the extent to which those who had learned their ABC put the skill of reading to use by becoming active readers. This chapter seeks to explore this, and to survey the various factors, other than formal education, which were involved in the development of a society in which the printed word became a significant part of the daily life of the various social classes.