I took college prep English in my small blue collar town back in the 1970s.  When I actually got to college, so many of my classmates were conversant in books like Catcher in the Rye that we had not read, and I was an English minor...  It took me years to realize that any book that could be considered subversive we were not allowed to read.  Those of us who wanted to reach for the stars were limited to the known planets.  So I'm troubled by a seeming lack of literary literacy that could show up later in college or other arenas.   

Thanks for bringing this up.  I'd read this article earlier and found it worthy to discuss.