A sad anecdote

I wrote a post entitled "Interesting Things Found in Books" and asked readers what they have found in books.  This was one of the comments:

I bought a book of poetry by John Donne, printed in the 1940s. It was heavily annotated and underlined, and had been studied very hard. I assumed it must have belonged to a professor or grad student, until I found two high school hall passes inside the pages.

I went online to look up this school (in upstate NY) that had such well-educated students. Today their resources for English classes include a "Lord of the Flies" video game. It made me want to cry.

So sad.