Handwriting's on the wall

[Byrd]

Many thanks for applying your knowledge to the topic.  I hadn't considered the application of a historical perspective on this.  I imagine that people in the past had lots of trepidation when it came to actually writing things.  It was not only a matter of training and skill, but some degree of pressure to step into a 'status' world where writing was constrained for a specific and 'official' purpose (religious storytelling, governance, for example) and not so much for formal learning, or creative impulse. I wonder if across the spectrum of 'writing' in the ancient past there was much "writing" by the general population, or was it all business and official record-keeping?  Feel free to ignore the curiosity... I think I'm drifting off topic.

Writing was very rare until the past 400 years or so (public schools... no matter what you think of them, they're responsible for literate populations.)  In ancient Egypt, only the scribes and nobles were literate... and some of them weren't very literate at all -- that's less than 10% of the public.  The average business person could write a few things (names, perhaps, and items and amounts) but wouldn't be able to compose a personal history or write a love poem.

The Celts were illiterate.  Most of the people throughout history were illiterate, which is why we don't have a lot of information on anyone but (literate) rulers until the Enlightenment.

Moreso, women were deliberately kept illiterate... my daughter-in-law's stepmother only completed 8th grade, and my husband's great aunt only completed third grade.  Not sure about my own family but I am reasonably certain that I'm the best educated in my direct lineage (I do have a physician who's a great-great-great uncle)

History is recorded by the literate, who were usually the wealthy (or their servants) - so we see history through the lens of their eyes.