Virtually every country in Europe discovered in the late 1970s that a section of its population had serious difficulties in using written language. Examined from an historical angle, this phenomenon can be seen as part of a complicated set of factors. Urban France can be said to have been fully literate by the late eighteenth century, especially…

One way of countering illiteracy is to teach children to read before they enter elementary school, e.g., in nursery school or at home. The "right age" for learning to read is discussed; positive results of a project in France that taught nursery school children to read and write are examined. (RM)