Literacy refers to the ability to read and write. Those two abilities are not identical, as people who have studied a foreign language can tell you. Reading is input and what is to be taken in is all ready for the reader. Writing is production and seems to require closer connection between the brain and the words produced. The two abilities together with basic arithmetic make the famous three R's of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic or basic calculation of numbers and counts.
There are plenty of people alive now who cannot read nor write in any language. People in the US thought that was a big handicap 200 years ago. It was and I imagine it is. But in today's world, there are additional skills that would probably be considered fundamental to living these days. I nominate some basic knowledge, experience and skill with machines, computers and meditation.
In the area of machines, we have items like a television set, a washing machine and others but the primary one is the automobile. In our house, we find that a new car has a new dashboard and that how to use the electronic controls is not obvious. But driving on our roads is pretty much the same as it was 50 years ago. Entering and exiting a superhighway is a little bit new but sitting in a traffic jam is the same.
We make plenty of use daily of a microwave but it is pretty quick to learn, I think.
Today, a person can live and live well without a computer or knowledge of the internet but my same-age friends would agree, I think, that some knowledge of and experience with a monitor, a mouse and using Windows or a Mac definitely enriches life. Even if you have used email but never visited Facebook or some other social website, you would probably be impressed by the service that now has over a billion with a B users.
Some familiarity with secular, non-religious meditation is also a basic plus. About 1980, I had read enough research to realize that the evidence for mental health and less noxious stress with meditation was rich enough and persuasive enough that at least some introduction to the practice should be in the basic school curriculum. Nowadays, the evidence is much stronger and more complete.
