First off, what is literacy? It is most basically described as an ability to read and write, but there are many organizations around the world who want to change that description. For example, is a tribe who writes pictographs as a way of communicating ideas literate, or are they just making art? Were the ancient Egyptians literate if their pictographs could be interpreted to mean different things to different people? Does a society actually use words, alphabetical characters, or other recognizable forms of written communication, or do they simply know them? Do you consider a society literate if only a small percentage of the population can read and write?
As you can see, there are many elements that need to go into discussing literacy, meaning that the definition of such a term is different to everyone.
Literacy Meaning Arguments
However, there are constants to literacy, and those can be discussed without too much argument. First off, a society is considered literate if even just a few members can read and write, although this is not considered ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Writing is such an important tool for recording history and ideas, and reading is one of the most beneficial ways to learn new ideas, and is of critical importance in developing education. Therefore, it is the ultimate goal of literacy organizations that everyone be able to use written communication in some form or another.
There is a very famous story of a Native American which illustrates many aspects of what literacy is and how it is important to societies which are not literate. As the story goes, a Native American man was sent to spend time studying and learning from the settlers of the new world, and one of the things he learned there was about the alphabet. When he returned from his time spent there, he devised his own alphabetical language, and taught it to his son, who transcribed a meeting with the elders of their tribe, while he was at a far-away location. After the meeting, someone delivered the message to him, and he stood in front of the whole tribe and read their statements back word for word to the company at hand. Many thought it was magical, but the elders immediately saw the potential for gain from this new technology, and they took up teaching it to every member of the tribe.
As a result of this, the society grew in power and made new allies among other tribes. Their students were much smarter as a result of having gained literacy. Meaning that they were much better off in almost every aspect of life.
Literacy Meaning Magic
Now that it is more common, however, much of the magic and mystery of literacy is taken for granted. There are still many places around the world where children are not taught how to read and write, despite the fact that the technology is now in use in almost every area of society around the earth.