This verse implies that the Lamanites had become illiterate by this time. Certainly, this was not the case with their forefathers, Laman and Lemuel, who would have been able to read and write in Hebrew and probably reformed Egyptian. Over the course of many generations, this most fundamental skill appears to have been lost until Amulon and the other priests teach them how to keep records and to write.
A remarkable thing happens to the Lamanites, apparently right after they become literate. They began to increase in riches, and began to trade one with another and wax great. Sophisticated trade relationships and powerful societies are possible only when the people, or at least the rulers, know how to read and write. The subsequent organization of Lamanite society suggests that this skill was not lost again for many years. Today the plague of illiteracy still affects many people, including descendants of the Lamanites. To these people, Spencer W. Kimball declared:
"Yesterday you roamed the wilderness in feast or famine; today you are finding security in education and industry; and tomorrow your destiny will be brilliant in self-sufficiency, faith, fearlessness, and power. Like the Israelites released from Egyptian bondage, you have been promised deliverance from your foes of superstition, fear, illiteracy, and from the curses of want and disease and suffering.
“Yesterday you traveled uncharted oceans, wandered over trackless deserts, lost your high culture, your written tongue, and your knowledge of the true and Living God. Today you are arising from your long sleep and are stretching, yawning, and reaching. Tomorrow you will be highly trained, laying out highways, constructing bridges, developing cities, building temples, and joining in inspired leadership of the Church of your Redeemer…You will arise from your bed of affliction and from your condition of deprivation if you will accept fully the Lord, Jesus Christ, and his total program. You will rise to former heights in culture and education, influence and power. You will blossom as the rose upon the mountains. Your daughters will be nurses, teachers, and social workers, and, above all, beloved wives and full-of-faith mothers of a righteous posterity. Your sons will compete in art, literature, and medicine, in law, architecture, etc. They will become professional, industrial, and business leaders, and statesmen of the first order.” (Conference Reports, Oct. 1959, p. 59)