Houston teacher's viral video on struggling seniors sparks calls for nuance on literacy

A Houston classroom moment has grown into a much wider debate after a Texas teacher shared an emotional video about seniors struggling with a basic writing task.

A Canadian educator said the viral clip should lead to a more grounded discussion, not a blanket claim that an entire generation "can't read or write," Now Toronto reported.

Here's what to know

In the video, Darius Williams, a teacher at Houston's Wheatley High School in the Houston Independent School District, acknowledged that some of his senior students struggled to finish a sentence even after being given a model, sentence starters, and guided annotation.

"These are 17- and 18-year-old kids, and they couldn't fill in four words. Four words," Williams lamented.

He said the problem was showing up in writing, not in students' ability to think through ideas.

"I gave them the scenario. We annotated together. I gave them the answers before we even had the problem, and they couldn't do it," he recalled, adding that students could still reason through ideas and defend them verbally.

Now Toronto also spoke with Toronto educator and author Matthew R. Morris, who asserted that the clip calls for nuance.

"He's right, but I see the side of it being misguided as well," Morris told Now Toronto.

Morris said students do not simply reach their final years of high school without literacy skills.

"These students don't get there overnight. This decline happens one grade at a time," he explained.

More background

Morris warned against turning a sincere concern about literacy into a broader claim that young people are somehow less capable than earlier generations.

"Inherent in this argument of 'these kids can't read and write' is this fallacy that these generations are inferior, and it's not necessarily true," Morris maintained.

He added that those assumptions can become even more harmful when the conversation centers on Black and brown students.

Canadian data paints a mixed picture.

In Ontario, Now Toronto summarized provincial results showing that 74% of English-language Grade 3 students met the reading standard in the 2024-25 school year, while 65% met the writing standard. By Grade 6, those figures were 86% for reading and 85% for writing.

Meanwhile, the latest Pan-Canadian Assessment Program release showed Grade 8 reading scores across Canada were up five points from the adjusted 2010 baseline, with Ontario posting the country's top average reading score.

That does not erase literacy gaps, but it also does not support the idea that today's students broadly cannot read or write.

What can be done?

Morris argued that schools should focus less on panic and more on early support.

That means stepping in during kindergarten and first grade rather than waiting until students reach high school, when their struggles become more visible.

He also says educators and families may need to reassess their concept of literacy.

Young people spend a great deal of time reading captions, interpreting posts, writing messages, and communicating online.

"Of course, social media has something to do with it if there's statistical evidence of decline in traditional literacy," Morris noted. "But at the same time, there's a generation of children that are born with a tablet in front of them by the age of two or three."

That does not mean essays, reading comprehension, or traditional writing no longer matter.

Morris says the challenge is to teach foundational skills in ways that feel relevant while preserving the strong communication abilities students need in school, at work, and in everyday life.

"Blend traditional literacy with nuanced and contemporary literacy," he advised. 

"Hold on to the most important parts of communication, because ideally that's what we are striving for, but at the same time, ensure that we are teaching students in a way that is engaging, relevant, and contemporary to them."

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