for people downvoting, the great "schooling of society" started in the 1940s-50s:
https://ourworldindata.org/literacy
till then most people around the world didn't know how to read and write.
my own eastern european country had an illiteracy rate of 95% in 1920.
i assume this is sarcasm, as society has historically been mostly illiterate and unschooled.
right now is when we are the most informed in the history of humankind.