🔗 Share this article

Across the UK, learners have been exclaiming the phrase ““six-seven” during instruction in the latest internet-inspired craze to sweep across educational institutions.

Whereas some teachers have chosen to calmly disregard the phenomenon, others have accepted it. A group of teachers describe how they’re dealing.

‘I believed I’d made an inappropriate comment’

During September, I had been addressing my secondary school students about preparing for their secondary school examinations in June. I can’t remember precisely what it was in connection with, but I said a phrase resembling “ … if you’re targeting marks six, seven …” and the entire group erupted in laughter. It caught me totally off guard.

My immediate assumption was that I might have delivered an hint at an inappropriate topic, or that they perceived something in my pronunciation that appeared amusing. Somewhat annoyed – but truly interested and conscious that they weren’t malicious – I asked them to explain. Frankly speaking, the explanation they then gave didn’t make much difference – I continued to have minimal understanding.

What might have rendered it extra funny was the evaluating motion I had made while speaking. I later discovered that this often accompanies ““67”: I meant it to help convey the act of me verbalizing thoughts.

To eliminate it I try to bring it up as often as I can. No strategy diminishes a trend like this more effectively than an adult attempting 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 thousand unemployed people in Germany in 1933”. In cases where the digit pairing is inevitable, maintaining a strong student discipline system and expectations on student conduct is advantageous, as you can deal with it as you would any different interruption, but I’ve not really needed to implement that. Guidelines are necessary, but if pupils embrace what the learning environment is practicing, they’ll be better concentrated by the viral phenomena (at least in lesson time).

With 67, I haven’t lost any instructional minutes, except for an periodic raised eyebrow and saying “yes, that’s a number, well done”. Should you offer attention to it, it evolves into an inferno. I handle it in the equivalent fashion I would treat any other disturbance.

Previously existed the 9 + 10 = 21 trend a while back, and undoubtedly there will emerge a new phenomenon after this. It’s what kids do. When I was youth, it was imitating comedy characters impersonations (admittedly out of the school environment).

Children are unforeseeable, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to respond in a approach that steers them back to the path that will get them to their educational goals, which, fingers crossed, is coming out with academic achievements rather than a behaviour list lengthy for the use of arbitrary digits.

‘They want to feel a part of a group’

The children use it like a unifying phrase in the playground: one says it and the others respond to indicate they’re part of the equivalent circle. It resembles a call-and-response or a stadium slogan – an agreed language they possess. In my view it has any distinct importance to them; they merely recognize it’s a phenomenon to say. Regardless of what the latest craze is, they want to experience belonging to it.

It’s banned in my learning environment, though – it’s a warning if they exclaim it – similar to any additional shouting out is. It’s especially tricky in mathematics classes. But my pupils at fifth grade are children aged nine to ten, so they’re quite adherent to the rules, whereas I understand that at high school it may be a separate situation.

I have served as a teacher for fifteen years, and these crazes last for a month or so. This craze will die out soon – this consistently happens, particularly once their younger siblings start saying it and it’s no longer trendy. Then they’ll be on to the next thing.

‘You just have to laugh with them’

I started noticing it in August, while teaching English at a foreign language school. It was mostly boys repeating it. I educated ages 12 to 18 and it was common among the younger pupils. I was unaware what it was at the time, but as a young adult and I understood it was simply an internet trend similar to when I was a student.

Such phenomena are continuously evolving. ““Skibidi” was a popular meme back when I was at my educational institute, but it didn’t really appear as frequently in the learning environment. Unlike ““sixseven”, ““the skibidi trend” was not scribbled on the chalkboard in class, so learners were less prepared to embrace it.

I simply disregard it, or periodically I will smile with the students if I accidentally say it, trying to understand them and recognize that it is just contemporary trends. I believe they just want to feel that sense of togetherness and companionship.

‘Playfully shouting it means I rarely hear it now’

I’ve done the {job|profession