A viral video of a high school English teacher breaking down in tears has reignited a national conversation about literacy and the state of American education — and it has also drawn sharp attention to how the country’s largest teachers union spends its money.
The teacher, who has not been identified by name, posted a video on social media in which he described breaking down in the middle of class after discovering that some of his seniors — students aged 17 and 18 — could not write a complete sentence, let alone a paragraph.
“I literally broke down in the middle of class because I’m teaching seniors,” he said, his voice cracking. “These kids are leaving high school and going to college, hopefully, after they finish.”
The teacher explained that he had given his students a simple task: read two paragraphs and write one complete sentence. He even provided sentence stems and a model, essentially completing the sentence for them.
“I gave them the scenario. We annotated together. I gave them the answers before we even had the problem,” he said. “These are 17 and 18-year-old kids, and they couldn’t fill in four words. Four words.”
He went on to say that this was only the second day of the school year, and he already had seniors who could not read and seniors who could not write.
“They could reason. They have the ability to defend their reasoning if it’s talking to their homeboy, but applying that to a written text, two paragraphs, they couldn’t do it,” he said, expressing frustration and sadness.
At one point, the teacher’s voice broke as he spoke about the impact on young people of color. “Our young Black men, our young brown men, our young Black girls, and our young brown girls. Oh God.”
The video quickly spread across social media platforms, with many educators and parents expressing shared frustration and concern about declining literacy standards. Some argued that the problem reflects systemic failures in elementary and middle school education, while others pointed to the influence of social media and reduced reading habits among teenagers.
But the video also sparked pointed criticism of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and its president, Randi Weingarten — not for what she has said about the issue, but for what her union has allegedly spent on her personal book project.
According to a report from the Freedom Foundation, Weingarten used union resources to help write and promote her book, “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.” The report claims that a team working on the book raked in more than $1.4 million from the labor group.
Weingarten allegedly pocketed a portion of the proceeds from the book, which the publisher described as a “manifesto for our time.” The Freedom Foundation’s report claims that the AFT’s spending included payments to an attorney who supposedly worked on the book pro bono, but whose law firm received $977,000 for various work for the union. A ghost writer who helped with the book reportedly earned over $400,000 from the union, and more than $11,000 was paid to two people who “fact-checked” the book and took photographs of Weingarten.
The report has fueled criticism that union leadership is prioritizing personal projects and political messaging over the practical needs of teachers and students — including the literacy crisis that the anonymous English teacher’s video so poignantly illustrates.
The Gateway Pundit, which first reported on the video, has reached out to the AFT for comment but has not yet received a response. The video and the Freedom Foundation report together have intensified the ongoing debate over education funding, teacher unions, and the effectiveness of America’s public schools.
For many teachers, the video is a painful reminder of the challenges they face in the classroom. The English teacher’s emotional breakdown has resonated with educators who say they see the same gaps in their own students — a lack of foundational reading and writing skills that are supposed to be mastered years before high school.
At its core, the video raises a simple but troubling question: How can students who can’t write a single sentence be expected to succeed in college or the workforce? And as the teacher’s tearful plea suggests, the answer isn’t clear to those on the front lines.
“I don’t know. I simply don’t know where the problem is,” he said.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/high-school-english-teacher-brought-tears-as-he/