A California teacher who posts on TikTok as @sarahannewrites said three of her 10th graders asked her where to find Chapter 2 in a book.
She described the exchange in one video, then posted a second clip about why students move up through grades without basic skills.
Teacher Said Students Handed Over Their Books
The first video carried on-screen text that read, “Y’all. Teachers are not okay.”
The teacher said she wished she were making the story up. She said she came on the platform to share what high school looked like to her.
“This is what life is like now in high school,” she said. She said three different 10th graders came to her, shoved their books at her and asked the same question.
“I don’t know how am I supposed to find chapter two? I don’t know where chapter two is,” she recalled the students telling her.
Her reply, she said, was short. “It’s after chapter one. Look. Turn the pages,” she said. She then repeated their grade level. “These are tenth graders. What?”
In the caption, she wrote, “What come after learned helplessness on the scale? Because that’s where we are at.”
Teacher Complained Schools Were Rated on Pass Rates
In a second video, the teacher said she had to respond because, in her words, “it’s true.” She said she understood that most viewers did not get why students “get passed on and on year after year, even though they don’t have the most basic skills.”
She gave two reasons. The first was how schools are measured.
“Number one, schools are rated on their pass rates and so schools, admin, they don’t want anybody failing,” she complained.
Teacher Described Credit Recovery Classes
The second reason, she said, was credit recovery. She said students who fail a high school class can take a credit recovery course to earn the credit back.
“Which basically is all online, which means that they can use AI for the whole thing, do it in a weekend, turn the stuff in and then they get the credit back,” she explained.
She said that left her failing grades with little effect.
“So it doesn’t even matter if I fail them because they can just take the credit recovery and then they’re done,” she said.
She added that students “will literally turn everything in a weekend because they can. It’s all online and everything else.”
She ended the video with a line she repeated twice. “So yeah, we can’t win. We can’t win,” she said.
How Viewers Shared Their Reactions
The videos reportedly drew comments from viewers. Several of them blamed the education system.
“This is the residue of no child left behind,” one person wrote.
Another commenter pointed to what they described as the practice of promoting students who are not ready. “The natural result of consistently passing kids to the next grade,” the person wrote.
Others focused on the students. “Imagine them as adults….. This country is in trouble…..,” one person commented. Another wrote, “I cannot believe they aren’t embarrassed for themselves.”
