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Across the UK, learners have been calling out the phrase ““67” during lessons in the latest internet-inspired trend to take over classrooms.

Whereas some teachers have opted to calmly disregard the craze, some have incorporated it. Several educators share how they’re coping.

‘I believed I’d made an inappropriate comment’

Back in September, I had been talking to my secondary school students about studying for their qualification tests in June. I can’t remember exactly what it was in relation to, but I said something like “ … if you’re aiming for results six, seven …” and the complete classroom erupted in laughter. It took me entirely unexpectedly.

My initial reaction was that I might have delivered an reference to something rude, or that they’d heard an element of my speech pattern that appeared amusing. Somewhat exasperated – but truly interested and mindful that they weren’t malicious – I persuaded them to clarify. Honestly, the explanation they provided failed to create greater understanding – I remained with minimal understanding.

What possibly rendered it particularly humorous was the weighing-up movement I had made while speaking. I have since learned that this typically pairs with “six-seven”: I had intended it to help convey the process of me thinking aloud.

To end the trend I try to mention it as often as I can. No strategy reduces a phenomenon like this more thoroughly than an grown-up attempting to participate.

‘If you give oxygen to it, then it becomes an inferno’

Knowing about it assists so that you can steer clear of just blundering into remarks like “for example, there existed 6, 7 thousand unemployed people in Germany in 1933”. When the digit pairing is inevitable, maintaining a firm student discipline system and standards on pupil behavior really helps, as you can address it as you would any additional interruption, but I’ve not really needed to implement that. Guidelines are necessary, but if learners accept what the learning environment is implementing, they will become less distracted by the online trends (particularly in class periods).

Concerning 67, I haven’t wasted any teaching periods, except for an occasional quizzical look and commenting “yes, that’s a number, well done”. When you provide attention to it, it evolves into a blaze. I address it in the equivalent fashion I would manage any additional interruption.

There was the 9 + 10 = 21 trend a previous period, and there will no doubt be a new phenomenon subsequently. This is typical youth activity. During my own childhood, it was doing television personalities impersonations (truthfully away from the school environment).

Children are unforeseeable, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to respond in a way that guides them back to the direction that will help them where they need to go, which, hopefully, is completing their studies with qualifications instead of a conduct report lengthy for the employment of arbitrary digits.

‘Children seek inclusion in social circles’

Students employ it like a unifying phrase in the playground: a student calls it and the other children answer to show they are the equivalent circle. It resembles a call-and-response or a football chant – an common expression they possess. I believe it has any particular meaning to them; they merely recognize it’s a trend to say. Regardless of what the newest phenomenon is, they seek to experience belonging to it.

It’s prohibited in my teaching space, nevertheless – it results in a caution if they exclaim it – identical to any other shouting out is. It’s notably challenging in maths lessons. But my pupils at year 5 are children aged nine to ten, so they’re fairly compliant with the rules, while I recognize that at teen education it may be a different matter.

I have served as a educator for a decade and a half, and these crazes continue for a month or so. This phenomenon will die out soon – this consistently happens, notably once their junior family members begin using it and it’s no longer fashionable. Afterward they shall be focused on the next thing.

‘You just have to laugh with them’

I started noticing it in August, while educating in English language at a language institute. It was primarily male students saying it. I instructed ages 12 to 18 and it was prevalent with the less experienced learners. I didn’t understand its significance at the time, but as a young adult and I recognized it was just a meme akin to when I was at school.

The crazes are always shifting. ““Toilet meme” was a popular meme at the time when I was at my educational institute, but it didn’t really occur as often in the classroom. Unlike “six-seven”, ““the skibidi trend” was never written on the whiteboard in lessons, so students were less able to adopt it.

I simply disregard it, or periodically I will chuckle alongside them if I accidentally say it, striving to understand them and recognize that it’s merely contemporary trends. In my opinion they merely seek to feel that sense of community and camaraderie.

‘Humorous repetition has reduced its frequency’

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