Did your grandparents know how to read and write?

45 comments

  3. Yes. That’s been taught before reddit was even a thing. Even here in the south it’s required to get passed kindergarten. Also I’m pretty sure that even before the boomers it was required.

  4. Yes – all 4 could.

    Both grandfathers fought in wars for the US. And one of my grandmother’s father (my great grandfather, obviously) was Nazi SS and their property was used for a Nazi youth camp. Yet, she still managed to learn somehow.

  5. Yes, my grandparents aren’t that old. Oldest one is only in their mid 60s. Hell my maternal grandmother got her masters in her 50s. However, I will say that it’s possible that I had a great grandparent or two who couldn’t read or write. However, that is my own personal assumption about a couple branches in the family tree.

  6. All 4 of mine could read and write, but one grandmother only finished 8th grade and one grandfather only finished 4th.

  9. Yes, but none of them graduated from high school. One left school in the 4th grade and the other not long after.

  10. Out of the 4 of them, 3 could read and write. My grandfather had to leave school in the 4th grade to help take care of the family after my great grandpa died and he never got a proper education because of it

  13. Yes, and their grandparents before them. My paternal grandmother was fluent in four languages and could read and write in all of them (English, French, Swedish and Finnish). My paternal grandfather was fluent in Swedish and English, but only read and wrote in English. My maternal grandmother could write and read Latin as well as English, and my maternal grandfather could read and understand but not speak German. He was fully literate in English.

  14. Yeah, they were both born in the late 1910’s. WWI children. The original baby boom.

    I’m not going to say this was true for all Americans their age. (They have since passed. Lived a long life.) There were very many rural places in America that didn’t have education, mostly in the Midwest where towns are incredibly small and most of the land is farms so it would be a very long walk to get to any kind of school.

    But we have lived in the Central East Coast since we landed here in the late 1800’s. Here getting an education is easy. America’s government funds public education. It differs by area, of course the poorer places have poorer education but where we live has always had pretty good public education. We are fortunate for that. My Mother is from Barbados, which is why I only mentioned my Father’s parents here, (although Barbadian education is very good and only the poorest of poor are illiterate because they go to work in the cane fields as soon as they can. Barbadian culture is very strong on getting an education.) so I am quite passionate that children get a good education.

  19. Grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents knew how to read and write. My grandpa could also read and write in Latin.

    Comes across as a little insulting that you seem to think Americans didn’t start getting an education until 1980.

  21. My grandfather was in education for over 30 years and my grandmother was a nurse for a long time so yes, of course.

  22. Yes, both of my grandfathers were educated enough to become low ranking officers in their military branches and one became a typist when typewriters were still somewhat novel. My grandmothers went to school in their various hometowns to learn to read and write, and were both quite sharp minds besides.

  23. Everyone in my family I’ve ever known knew how to read and write up to my great grandparents. Couldn’t tell you any farther back.

  25. Yes, but if you asked somewhere besides this subreddit, you might get different answers. DeRay McKesson (a pretty well-known black activist) asked a similar question on twitter once and the responses were eye-opening to me, a white American.

    Read before twitter collapses: https://twitter.com/deray/status/561368726705291264

    Edit: I wanted to add that I volunteer with my local public library’s literacy program, which is what it’s called: Adult Literacy Program. When I first signed up, I was curious about how many people were genuinely in the program because they couldn’t read. I don’t really have any numbers on it, but having been to various training and events for the program over the years now, I can say with confidence that virtually everyone involved is not actually illiterate, but instead are English learners. My student is from China and because she isn’t amazing at reading Latin letters, I do literacy exercises with her, but my main goal for her is to improve her English skills. (Her parents, who grew up during the Japanese occupation of China during WW2 and had what sounds like the worst childhoods imaginable, actually were illiterate.)

  26. My Grandmother was functionally illiterate for much of her life, she really learned to read in her 50s.

    I’m not sure exactly what you count as being able to read.

  27. Yes. As far as I know everyone in my family has known how to read and write for at least 7 generations

  29. Yes. My Paternal Grandmother had a masters degree and was working on her PHD when her mother passed. She had to move home to take care of her Dad because in the 1940s grown men couldn’t by law run the vacuum. My Paternal Grandfather used the training he got in WWII as the head of a finance unit to become an executive at a trucking company. My Maternal Grandparents both graduated high school and were literate. I am sure I have illiterate family on my Mom’s side in the Appalachian hills of PA but I don’t know them.

  30. Everyone in my family from my grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and 32 cousins has a bachelors degree or further education except one who has an associates degree but can definitely read and is more successful than a lot of us fancy college boys.

    As far as I know everyone in my family going back several generations has been literate.

  34. Yes. Only one of my grandparents was an immigrant and he was probably the most educated, since he got a college degree in night school.

  38. Yes they can both read and write. The only way I could see someone not being literate in the US in 2022 is having some kind of profound disability or being completely isolated your whole life.

  39. As far as I can tell, all of my grandparents can read and write. Mr grandma on my mom’s side would call our house to ask me to do math for her. She can count and everything, but I think big numbers scare her.

    My grandma on my mom’s side couldn’t read. She did, however, fully paid off a house before she died.

  40. On my mom’s side my grandmother was a legal secretary and my grandfather was a ranch manager. He might have quit school after 8th grade and lived as a cowboy in Nevada for several years, but he was probably the best read person I’ve ever known.

    On my dad’s side my grandmother was a teacher and my grandfather ran his own intermodal trucking company.

    So… yes? All my grandparents knew how to read and write and do above average arithmetic. I wouldn’t even hesitate to say that their parents could do the same. My great-great grandparents on my paternal side… maybe not in English, but certainly in German.

  41. Yes. My paternal grandmother was one of 14, and she grew up in rural Montana, on a farm next to an Indian reservation. She didn’t wear shoes regularly for her first 10 years, and didn’t have indoor plumbing or electricity until she was 16. She was born right around the time the Wright brothers first flew. My paternal grandfather is the only male (besides me) in my families history in the US (came here in the late 1500s) to graduate high school.

    My maternal grandfather was an chemist at Corning glass when they were still in Philadelphia.

  43. My grandparents could read and write. I’ve known no one in my lifetime who is illiterate, or even heard of anyone who is illiterate.

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