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Throughout the UK, students have been shouting out the words ““six-seven” during lessons in the latest internet-inspired phenomenon to sweep across educational institutions.

Whereas some teachers have decided to stoically ignore the phenomenon, others have accepted it. A group of instructors explain how they’re coping.

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

During September, I had been addressing my eleventh grade class about studying for their GCSE exams in June. It escapes me specifically what it was in connection with, but I said words similar to “ … if you’re aiming for grades six, seven …” and the complete classroom erupted in laughter. It caught me entirely unexpectedly.

My first thought was that I had created an allusion to an inappropriate topic, or that they’d heard a quality in my speech pattern that seemed humorous. A bit annoyed – but truly interested and conscious that they weren’t malicious – I persuaded them to explain. Frankly speaking, the clarification they offered failed to create significant clarification – I continued to have little comprehension.

What could have made it particularly humorous was the evaluating movement I had performed during speaking. I later learned that this often accompanies ““sixseven”: My purpose was it to aid in demonstrating the act of me speaking my mind.

To end the trend I try to reference it as much as I can. No approach diminishes a craze like this more emphatically than an teacher attempting to get involved.

‘Feeding the trend creates a blaze’

Understanding it helps so that you can prevent just unintentionally stating comments like “well, there were 6, 7 hundred people without work in Germany in 1933”. When the digit pairing is inevitable, maintaining a strong school behaviour policy and expectations on learner demeanor is advantageous, as you can deal with it as you would any other disturbance, but I rarely needed to implement that. Policies are important, but if pupils buy into what the learning environment is doing, they will become less distracted by the viral phenomena (particularly in lesson time).

Concerning six-seven, I haven’t sacrificed any teaching periods, other than for an occasional raised eyebrow and commenting “yes, that’s a number, well done”. Should you offer focus on it, it evolves into a blaze. I handle it in the same way I would handle any different interruption.

There was the 9 + 10 = 21 trend a while back, and there will no doubt be a new phenomenon subsequently. That’s children’s behavior. Back when I was childhood, it was imitating comedy characters mimicry (truthfully outside the learning space).

Young people are spontaneous, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to respond in a manner that redirects them in the direction of the path that will enable them toward their academic objectives, which, fingers crossed, is graduating with academic achievements instead of a disciplinary record extensive for the utilization of random numbers.

‘They want to feel a part of a group’

The children employ it like a connecting expression in the playground: a pupil shouts it and the other children answer to indicate they’re part of the identical community. It’s like a verbal exchange or a stadium slogan – an common expression they share. I don’t think it has any distinct significance to them; they just know it’s a phenomenon to say. No matter what the latest craze is, they desire to experience belonging to it.

It’s prohibited in my learning environment, though – it’s a warning if they exclaim it – similar to any additional verbal interruption is. It’s particularly difficult in numeracy instruction. But my pupils at primary level are children aged nine to ten, so they’re quite compliant with the rules, whereas I appreciate that at secondary [school] it may be a different matter.

I have worked as a teacher for a decade and a half, and such trends last for a month or so. This phenomenon will fade away soon – they always do, notably once their junior family members start saying it and it stops being fashionable. Then they’ll be engaged with the subsequent trend.

‘Occasionally sharing the humor is essential’

I started noticing it in August, while teaching English at a foreign language school. It was mostly boys uttering it. I educated teenagers and it was widespread within the junior students. I didn’t understand its significance at the time, but I’m 24 years old and I understood it was just a meme comparable to when I was at school.

These trends are always shifting. ““Skibidi” was a popular meme at the time when I was at my training school, but it failed to appear as frequently in the classroom. In contrast to ““sixseven”, “skibidi toilet” was not scribbled on the chalkboard in instruction, so students were less able to pick up on it.

I just ignore it, or sometimes I will smile with the students if I unintentionally utter it, striving to empathise with them and recognize that it’s simply contemporary trends. I believe they merely seek to experience that feeling of community and companionship.

‘Playfully shouting it means I rarely hear it now’

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