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Throughout the UK, students have been shouting out the phrase ““six-seven” during instruction in the most recent meme-based craze to spread through classrooms.

Whereas some instructors have chosen to stoically ignore the phenomenon, different educators have incorporated it. Five teachers share how they’re coping.

‘I believed I’d made an inappropriate comment’

Earlier in September, I had been addressing my year 11 tutor group about preparing for their GCSE exams in June. I don’t recall precisely what it was in relation to, but I said something like “ … if you’re aiming for marks six, seven …” and the entire group erupted in laughter. It took me entirely unexpectedly.

My first thought was that I might have delivered an hint at something rude, or that they detected an element of my speech pattern that sounded funny. Somewhat frustrated – but genuinely curious and mindful that they weren’t trying to be mean – I persuaded them to clarify. To be honest, the clarification they provided didn’t provide greater understanding – I remained with little comprehension.

What possibly made it extra funny was the evaluating movement I had made while speaking. I have since found out that this typically pairs with ““67”: My purpose was it to aid in demonstrating the action of me verbalizing thoughts.

With the aim of eliminate it I aim to bring it up as often as I can. No strategy diminishes a phenomenon like this more thoroughly than an adult attempting to get involved.

‘Feeding the trend creates a blaze’

Being aware of it helps so that you can steer clear of just blundering into remarks like “well, there were 6, 7 hundred jobless individuals in Germany in 1933”. If the digit pairing is unpreventable, maintaining a firm school behaviour policy and standards on pupil behavior really helps, as you can deal with it as you would any other disruption, but I haven’t actually had to do that. Rules are one thing, but if pupils buy into what the learning environment is doing, they’ll be less distracted by the online trends (especially in class periods).

Regarding sixseven, I haven’t sacrificed any lesson time, aside from an periodic quizzical look and saying “yes, that’s a number, well done”. Should you offer oxygen to it, then it becomes a wildfire. I treat it in the identical manner I would treat any additional interruption.

There was the 9 + 10 = 21 phenomenon a few years ago, and certainly there will appear a new phenomenon following this. This is typical youth activity. During my own childhood, it was doing comedy characters impersonations (honestly outside the school environment).

Young people are unpredictable, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to react in a way that redirects them toward the path that will enable them where they need to go, which, hopefully, is coming out with certificates instead of a behaviour list lengthy for the employment of meaningless numerals.

‘Students desire belonging to a community’

The children employ it like a connecting expression in the recreation area: a student calls it and the other children answer to show they are the same group. It’s like a interactive chant or a stadium slogan – an shared vocabulary they possess. I believe it has any distinct significance to them; they merely recognize it’s a thing to say. No matter what the newest phenomenon is, they want to experience belonging to it.

It’s prohibited in my classroom, however – it triggers a reminder if they exclaim it – similar to any different calling out is. It’s especially tricky in mathematics classes. But my class at year 5 are children aged nine to ten, so they’re relatively adherent to the rules, while I understand that at high school it could be a separate situation.

I have served as a teacher for fifteen years, and such trends continue for three or four weeks. This craze will diminish in the near future – it invariably occurs, particularly once their junior family members start saying it and it’s no longer fashionable. Subsequently they will be on to the subsequent trend.

‘You just have to laugh with them’

I started noticing it in August, while teaching English at a language institute. It was mostly boys uttering it. I educated teenagers and it was prevalent with the junior students. I was unaware its meaning at the time, but being twenty-four and I realised it was simply an internet trend akin to when I was a student.

Such phenomena are constantly changing. “Skibidi toilet” was a well-known trend back when I was at my training school, but it didn’t particularly occur as often in the classroom. Differing from ““sixseven”, “skibidi toilet” was not inscribed on the whiteboard in class, so pupils were less equipped to embrace it.

I simply disregard it, or sometimes I will chuckle alongside them if I inadvertently mention it, trying to understand them and understand that it’s merely pop culture. In my opinion they simply desire to enjoy that sensation of belonging and camaraderie.

‘Humorous repetition has reduced its frequency’

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