A viral video on TikTok made its way to Twitter as well, one in which a student at Preparatory Charter High School in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia asked some of his classmates to read a sentence, and several struggled. One of the sentences was, “She wore a silhouette of clothes that were extraordinary but somewhat gauche,” an odd bit of wording to be sure, but one which any high school student should be able to get through. “Silhouette” might have fooled some people, the “h” being mostly silent, though providing a clue to pronunciation anyway, and “gauche” is an uncommon word, though I have used it thrice on Twitter. But many were also tripped up by “extraordinary,” a very common word.
The videos were entitled, “Can you read?”, and it was obvious that several of the students actually could not read, at least not at anything close to grade level. So naturally the school had to respond and defend itself. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Philly charter school says student’s viral ‘Can You Read?’ video was ‘misleading and unfair’
One video of Preparatory Charter High School students was viewed more than 15 million times on TikTok.
by Maddie Hanna | Sunday, May 3, 2026 |6:27 PM EDT
A South Philadelphia charter school said Sunday that a student’s widely viewed videos showing classmates struggling to read certain words did not accurately reflect the school’s community.
Preparatory Charter High School, which enrolls students in grades 9 through 12, also said it was not seeking to expel the student who made the videos, contrary to posts circulating on social media.
Well, of course the school said that!
The account that posted the video, @whatthevek, did not respond to an interview request Sunday. The account last week also posted a “Can You Read Pt. 2″ video that was viewed more than 2 million times on TikTok, depicting students reading the sentence: “The colonel asked the choir to accommodate the governor’s schedule.”
The footage drew media attention, and widely circulated social media posts claimed that the student who made the videos was facing expulsion.
On Sunday, Prep Charter’s administration said in a statement that while federal privacy rules barred the school from discussing details of disciplinary action, “the student in question is not facing expulsion.”
The school said the video footage “does not accurately reflect our school community or the values we strive to uphold every day.”
“While some students may have agreed to be filmed, the way the footage was presented lacks important context and has led to a portrayal that is misleading and unfair,” the school said in the statement. “The video titled ‘Can You Read?’ does not represent the character, effort, or abilities of our students as a whole.”
It doesn’t? Here’s education reporter Maddie Hanna’s final paragraph:
On Pennsylvania state assessments in the 2024-25 school year, 46.5% of students scored proficient in English language arts, compared with nearly 50% statewide.
That’s actually worse than the US News and World Report rankings, which had students there scoring 56% at grade level proficiency in reading. The trouble is that the Preparatory Charter School of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Careers had only 21% grade level proficient in mathematics and 18% grade level proficient in science, yet the school has a graduation rate of 95%.
Perhaps someone smarter than me can tell me how that math works out? How does a high school which supposedly focuses on math and science graduate 95% of its students when roughly 80% of its students are not grade level proficient in math and science? What is a diploma from Prep Charter actually worth?
The interesting thing is that the unnamed @whatthevek was making a video on the school’s strongest performing area. What would have happened if he had been asking math of science questions?
He also posted a video entitled, “Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?”
Yes, I’m old, but I’m pretty sure that all of the 78 members of the Mt Sterling High School Class graduating Class of 1971 could actually read. They didn’t all take algebra or trig — I did — but no one would ever think of really asking them if they could read. And we had exactly one teacher who had his Master’s degree. Perhaps there’s something just plain wrong with public education today?