In my columns, I often emphasize the importance of reading. Some of you have told me that I’m too tough on students. Others say that I’m exaggerating, that things can’t possibly be this bad.

If you don’t want to take my word for it – or the test scores – consider the perspective of a high school senior in Philadelphia who decided to show, not tell.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, a student at a charter school hands his classmates a sentence to read: “She wore a silhouette of clothes that were extraordinary but somewhat gauche.”

Several students struggled to pronounce "silhouette," "extraordinary" and "gauche." When asked to explain what they had just read, more than one response was simple and sobering: “I don’t know.”

One student misread “silhouette.” Another admitted she didn’t know the word “extraordinary.” Even students who could read the sentence couldn’t explain it in their own words. People laughed in the comments, but there’s nothing funny about it.

What that video shows is far bigger than a few students struggling – it reveals a system that is quietly passing kids along without giving them the most basic tool they need to succeed.

And here’s the part that should concern all of us: Instead of addressing the literacy problem, school officials reportedly moved to punish the student who exposed it. The student, who is Black, says he’s been threatened with suspension and possibly barred from........

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