‘Sometimes you’ve got to chuckle’: several UK educators on dealing with ‘‘sixseven’ in the classroom

Throughout the UK, school pupils have been calling out the words ““six-seven” during lessons in the latest internet-inspired craze to sweep across schools.

Although some educators have opted to calmly disregard the trend, different educators have embraced it. A group of teachers explain how they’re dealing.

‘I thought I had said something rude’

During September, I had been talking to my secondary school tutor group about getting ready 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 working to marks six, seven …” and the entire group erupted in laughter. It surprised me totally off guard.

My first thought was that I had created an allusion to an offensive subject, or that they’d heard something in my speech pattern that seemed humorous. Slightly frustrated – but truly interested and aware that they weren’t trying to be mean – I asked them to clarify. Frankly speaking, the description they provided didn’t make much difference – I still had little comprehension.

What possibly made it extra funny was the weighing-up gesture I had executed while speaking. Subsequently I found out that this often accompanies ““sixseven”: I meant it to aid in demonstrating the action of me speaking my mind.

With the aim of end the trend I attempt to bring it up as much as I can. Nothing deflates a phenomenon like this more thoroughly than an grown-up striving to participate.

‘Providing attention fuels the fire’

Being aware of it assists so that you can prevent just accidentally making comments like “indeed, there were 6, 7 thousand unemployed people in Germany in 1933”. When the digit pairing is unavoidable, maintaining a rock-solid student discipline system and requirements on student conduct proves beneficial, as you can deal with it as you would any different disturbance, but I rarely had to do that. Guidelines are one thing, but if students buy into what the school is doing, they will become better concentrated by the internet crazes (particularly in lesson time).

With six-seven, I haven’t lost any instructional minutes, aside from an occasional eyebrow raise and commenting “yes, that’s a number, well done”. When you provide focus on it, it evolves into a wildfire. I handle it in the equivalent fashion I would manage any other disruption.

Earlier occurred the nine plus ten equals twenty-one craze a few years ago, and undoubtedly there will emerge a different trend after this. That’s children’s behavior. During my own youth, it was performing television personalities impersonations (honestly outside the classroom).

Young people are unpredictable, and I believe it’s an adult’s job to respond in a approach that steers them toward the direction that will help them to their educational goals, which, hopefully, is completing their studies with academic achievements as opposed to a behaviour list lengthy for the utilization of arbitrary digits.

‘Children seek inclusion in social circles’

The children utilize it like a bonding chant in the schoolyard: a student calls it and the other children answer to show they are the equivalent circle. It’s like a call-and-response or a football chant – an agreed language they use. I believe it has any particular importance to them; they simply understand it’s a trend to say. Whatever the newest phenomenon is, they seek to experience belonging to it.

It’s prohibited in my learning environment, nevertheless – it triggers a reminder if they call it out – similar to any additional calling out is. It’s notably tricky in mathematics classes. But my class at year 5 are children aged nine to ten, so they’re fairly accepting of the regulations, although I recognize that at teen education it might be a separate situation.

I have worked as a teacher for 15 years, and such trends last for a few weeks. This craze will diminish in the near future – this consistently happens, particularly once their younger siblings start saying it and it’s no longer cool. Then they’ll be on to the subsequent trend.

‘Occasionally sharing the humor is essential’

I started noticing it in August, while teaching English at a international school. It was mostly boys saying it. I taught students from twelve to eighteen and it was common with the junior students. I didn’t understand its significance at the time, but as a young adult and I understood it was simply an internet trend akin to when I was at school.

These trends are continuously evolving. ““Toilet meme” was a well-known trend at the time when I was at my training school, but it didn’t particularly occur as often in the educational setting. In contrast to ““67”, ““that particular meme” was never written on the whiteboard in class, so students were less prepared to pick up on it.

I simply disregard it, or sometimes I will smile with the students if I accidentally say it, trying to empathise with them and recognize that it is just pop culture. I think they merely seek to experience that feeling of community and companionship.

‘Humorous repetition has reduced its frequency’

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Taylor Craig
Taylor Craig

Elara is a wellness coach and writer passionate about holistic living and mindfulness practices.

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