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    Worth bearing in mind that books only became available (affordable) to the lowest classes relatively recently. Schooling for all is also relatively recent. It's easy to learn to read when you have teachers and parents who can read and there are plenty of things available for you to read. It's not so easy when the only books are at the church and they are written in Latin. Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 16:17
  • 28
    Can you summarize why it would be helpful for a commoner to be able to read? I'm skeptical. Literacy rates were below 20% multiple similar conclusions What would they read? to whom would they write? Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 17:55
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    I don't know who told you that at least one person per household was able to read, but I would be surprised if it was true. Two things to consider: books were remarkably expensive before the printing press and almost only monks could write and they were spending a large portion of their time copying books and most of the written text was in Latin that common people didn't really understand Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 18:22
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    Medieval Europe is huge both geographically and in time. The answer will be very different between Poland in 600 and Italy in 1300... Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 21:05
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    As other comments have said, don't underestimate the importance of having something to read. Never mind whole books - some peasants probably went their whole lives without seeing words written down in any form. The availability of reading material is of course a necessary precondition for teaching people to read. In modern times people can and sometimes do teach themselves to read without any schooling, which medieval peasants couldn't do. Commented Jan 24, 2022 at 0:44