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Across the UK, school pupils have been calling out the phrase ““67” during classes in the most recent internet-inspired craze to take over educational institutions.

Whereas some instructors have decided to patiently overlook the phenomenon, different educators have incorporated it. Several teachers share how they’re coping.

‘I believed I’d made an inappropriate comment’

Back in September, I had been speaking with my secondary school class about preparing for their qualification tests in June. I don’t recall specifically what it was in connection with, but I said something like “ … if you’re working to results six, seven …” and the complete classroom started chuckling. It surprised me totally off guard.

My immediate assumption was that I had created an reference to an offensive subject, or that they perceived an element of my pronunciation that appeared amusing. Somewhat exasperated – but truly interested and mindful that they weren’t trying to be malicious – I got them to elaborate. Honestly, the clarification they then gave didn’t make greater understanding – I still had no idea.

What possibly made it especially amusing was the weighing-up movement I had performed during speaking. I later discovered that this frequently goes with “six-seven”: I meant it to help convey the action of me verbalizing thoughts.

To eliminate it I attempt to bring it up as much as I can. No approach diminishes a phenomenon like this more emphatically than an adult trying to get involved.

‘Providing attention fuels the fire’

Understanding it helps so that you can steer clear of just accidentally making remarks like “indeed, there were 6, 7 million unemployed people in Germany in 1933”. When the digit pairing is unpreventable, maintaining a rock-solid school behaviour policy and requirements on pupil behavior proves beneficial, as you can address it as you would any other disruption, but I’ve not really had to do that. Policies are important, but if pupils buy into what the school is implementing, they will remain less distracted by the online trends (particularly in lesson time).

Concerning six-seven, I haven’t lost any teaching periods, other than for an infrequent raised eyebrow and commenting ““indeed, those are numerals, excellent”. Should you offer oxygen to it, then it becomes a blaze. I address it in the equivalent fashion I would treat any different disruption.

There was the mathematical meme phenomenon a few years ago, and certainly there will appear a different trend following this. That’s children’s behavior. When I was childhood, it was imitating comedy characters mimicry (truthfully outside the learning space).

Students are unpredictable, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to respond in a approach that redirects them toward the direction that will get them toward their academic objectives, which, with luck, is coming out with certificates rather than a disciplinary record lengthy for the employment of random numbers.

‘Students desire belonging to a community’

Young learners employ it like a unifying phrase in the playground: a pupil shouts it and the others respond to show they are the identical community. It resembles a call-and-response or a stadium slogan – an agreed language they possess. In my view it has any distinct significance to them; they merely recognize it’s a trend to say. Regardless of what the latest craze is, they desire to feel part of it.

It’s prohibited in my learning environment, though – it’s a warning if they shout it out – identical to any additional calling out is. It’s notably tricky in numeracy instruction. But my class at year 5 are nine to 10-year-olds, so they’re quite adherent to the rules, whereas I appreciate that at teen education it could be a different matter.

I have worked as a educator for fifteen years, and these phenomena last for three or four weeks. This craze will fade away in the near future – this consistently happens, particularly once their younger siblings commence repeating it and it ceases to be cool. Subsequently they will be focused on the next thing.

‘Sometimes joining the laughter is necessary’

I first detected it in August, while teaching English at a language institute. It was mainly male students repeating it. I educated teenagers and it was common within the less experienced learners. I had no idea its meaning at the time, but being twenty-four and I recognized it was simply an internet trend comparable to when I was a student.

Such phenomena are always shifting. ““Toilet meme” was a popular meme at the time when I was at my educational institute, but it failed to exist as much in the classroom. Differing from ““sixseven”, ““that particular meme” was not inscribed on the whiteboard in lessons, so students were less equipped to adopt it.

I just ignore it, or occasionally I will laugh with them if I unintentionally utter it, attempting to relate to them and appreciate that it is just contemporary trends. I think they simply desire to feel that sense of togetherness and camaraderie.

‘Humorous repetition has reduced its frequency’

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