Woman Returns to College and Is Shocked by Her Younger Classmates: “These Kids Are Dumb”

A TikTok video posted by Sahirah Abdur, a model who decided to go back to school to earn a business degree, has gone massively viral, racking up more than 1.2 million views and sparking a heated conversation about the state of academic preparedness among today’s college students. Abdur, who is older than the typical undergraduate, said she returned to campus hoping to build a backup plan for her career. What she found there, however, left her genuinely stunned.

In the video, Abdur did not mince words about what she encountered. “I went back to college and, to make a long story short, these kids are dumb,” she said bluntly. “I can’t believe it. They don’t know how to read or write. I’m not even great at math myself, but they don’t know things you learn in fifth grade.” Her candid delivery struck a nerve with viewers, many of whom flooded the comments section with their own experiences from both sides of the classroom.

One anecdote she shared particularly resonated with people online. Abdur described a young classmate who had already failed a basic public speaking course twice. The course, she explained, could essentially be passed just by showing up and participating. The moment that truly floored her came when that same student noticed Abdur taking notes during a lecture and asked, with apparent surprise, whether she was supposed to be doing that too. “Our future is done,” Abdur concluded in the video, with a mix of disbelief and dark humor.

What makes her observations harder to dismiss as mere generational grumbling is the fact that researchers and educators have been sounding similar alarms for some time. Vox reported on multiple studies as far back as 2024 warning of widespread struggles among college students in reading, writing, and basic mathematics. While many initially attributed these gaps to the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data suggested the problem was more stubborn than that. According to a report from the Northwest Evaluation Association, known as NWEA, some students not only failed to recover lost ground after the pandemic but actually fell further behind over time.

@sahirahabdur Our future is cooked!! #college #students #lowiq ♬ Mozart/Requiem/Sad Song(1558319) – Nebo

The response from educators in the comment section of Abdur’s video was striking in its consistency. “I’m a professor at a university. It has gotten reaaaally bad in the last seven or eight years,” wrote one commenter. Another added her own perspective from the front of the classroom: “I’m also a university professor. I get so excited when I see an older student. I think to myself: Let’s go!” The enthusiasm these instructors expressed for returning adult learners says as much about the current classroom environment as their descriptions of its challenges.

One instructor shared a particularly telling detail about how she has had to adapt her teaching. “I have students who write an entire essay in one paragraph,” she wrote. “I teach journalism and communications. I had to introduce a rule that if someone opens TikTok while I’m teaching, they have to play the video for the whole class and explain it.” The irony of a TikTok video going viral about problems partly attributed to TikTok was not lost on many commenters.

Other adult learners who had returned to school chimed in with their own observations. “I’m 29 and went back to college. It’s incredible how much professors have lowered the bar. I’ve never felt like more of a genius in my life,” one person wrote. Another added a wry detail: “My professor asked me to stop answering questions because no one else was participating.” The picture that emerges from the comment section is one of classrooms quietly restructured around the lowest common denominator, with older students often left feeling as though they had accidentally enrolled in a remedial course rather than higher education.

The debate Abdur’s video has ignited is one that educators, parents, and policymakers have been struggling with for years. Reading scores among American students have been declining, and the gap between what a high school diploma is supposed to represent and what students actually know upon graduation has widened considerably. The concern is not simply academic. Employers have consistently reported that new hires lack basic communication and critical thinking skills, suggesting the ripple effects of this knowledge gap extend well beyond the lecture hall.

The average American reads at roughly a seventh-grade level, despite most adults having completed high school. TikTok, which features so prominently in this story, has an average video watch time of under a minute, and some researchers have linked heavy short-form video consumption to reduced sustained attention and reading stamina in younger users. College enrollment among adults over 25 has actually been rising steadily in recent years, meaning more people like Abdur are heading back to campus and getting a front-row seat to these changes.

Have you noticed a shift in academic preparedness among students, or do you have your own experience from the classroom? Share your thoughts in the comments.