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Around the UK, students have been shouting out the expression ““67” during lessons in the most recent internet-inspired phenomenon to spread through classrooms.

While some educators have opted to patiently overlook the craze, different educators have embraced it. Several teachers share how they’re managing.

‘My initial assumption was that I’d uttered something offensive’

Back in September, I had been addressing my secondary school tutor group about studying for their qualification tests in June. I can’t remember exactly what it was in connection with, but I said words similar to “ … if you’re working to marks six, seven …” and the entire group started chuckling. It surprised me completely by surprise.

My initial reaction was that I’d made an allusion to something rude, or that they’d heard something in my pronunciation that seemed humorous. Somewhat frustrated – but genuinely curious and conscious that they had no intention of being mean – I got them to explain. Honestly, the clarification they then gave didn’t provide greater understanding – I remained with no idea.

What could have made it especially amusing was the evaluating motion I had performed during speaking. Subsequently I discovered that this typically pairs with “six-seven”: I meant it to aid in demonstrating the process of me thinking aloud.

In order to end the trend I try to bring it up as frequently as I can. No strategy diminishes a craze like this more emphatically than an teacher trying to get involved.

‘Feeding the trend creates a blaze’

Knowing about it assists so that you can avoid just unintentionally stating remarks like “indeed, there were 6, 7 hundred unemployed people in Germany in 1933”. If the digit pairing is unpreventable, possessing a rock-solid student discipline system and expectations on pupil behavior proves beneficial, as you can address it as you would any additional disturbance, but I’ve not really needed to implement that. Rules are important, but if students accept what the learning environment is implementing, they will become more focused by the online trends (at least in instructional hours).

Concerning sixseven, I haven’t sacrificed any lesson time, other than for an periodic quizzical look and saying ““indeed, those are numerals, excellent”. Should you offer focus on it, it evolves into a wildfire. I handle it in the same way I would handle any other disturbance.

There was the 9 + 10 = 21 phenomenon a previous period, and there will no doubt be another craze following this. It’s what kids do. When I was childhood, it was doing Kevin and Perry impersonations (truthfully out of the learning space).

Children are unforeseeable, and I think it’s an adult’s job to react in a way that guides them back to the path that will enable them to their educational goals, which, with luck, is completing their studies with academic achievements rather than a disciplinary record lengthy for the use of arbitrary digits.

‘Students desire belonging to a community’

The children utilize it like a unifying phrase in the playground: a pupil shouts it and the other children answer to show they are the same group. It’s like a call-and-response or a sports cheer – an shared vocabulary they share. In my view it has any specific importance to them; they simply understand 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 teaching space, however – it results in a caution if they shout it out – identical to any other calling out is. It’s notably tricky in numeracy instruction. But my students at fifth grade are children aged nine to ten, so they’re quite compliant with the rules, whereas I recognize that at secondary [school] it could be a different matter.

I’ve been a educator for fifteen years, and these crazes continue for a few weeks. This craze will diminish in the near future – they always do, especially once their younger siblings start saying it and it ceases to be fashionable. Then they’ll be focused on the next thing.

‘Occasionally sharing the humor is essential’

I started noticing it in August, while instructing in English at a international school. It was mostly boys uttering it. I instructed teenagers and it was prevalent with the less experienced learners. I didn’t understand its significance at the time, but being twenty-four and I understood it was just a meme akin to when I attended classes.

The crazes are always shifting. ““Toilet meme” was a popular meme back when I was at my teacher preparation program, but it didn’t particularly occur as often in the classroom. In contrast to “six-seven”, “skibidi toilet” was never written on the board in instruction, so pupils were less prepared to adopt it.

I typically overlook it, or periodically I will smile with the students if I accidentally say it, striving to understand them and understand that it’s merely youth culture. In my opinion they merely seek to feel that sense of togetherness and camaraderie.

‘Lighthearted usage has diminished its occurrence’

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