It seems that every day a new story pops up trying to explain the "6 7" phenomenon. Because I teach fourteen and fifteen year olds, I figured I should chime in.
Now I must admit, as a special education teacher, I think my annoyance tolerance may be higher than the average teacher. I am used to working with students on the autism spectrum or sever ADHD so I think I am pretty much used to random things being blurted out in class. As a result, I am not bothered at all by the "6 7" phenomenon.
For the uninitiated, students across the country are randomly saying the numbers "6 7" (usually during class). Whenever I hear something repeated so often, my teacher sense starts tingling and I immediately think it must be something inappropriate for school. But to my surprise, "6 7" is not a code for anything sexual, drug related or mean. It is code for... nothing. It literally has no meaning. It is just a very simple way for kids to indicate that they are "in the circle". They know the joke... which is that there is no joke. I am guessing they had a ton of fun confusing adults by saying something nonsensical. Adults like me, scoured the internet and asked around to see what it meant. But the joke is on us. it means nothing! And to tell you the truth, I find that pretty clever. I am actually happy teens found a way to bond over something so innocuous. No one has to be the butt of the joke. No one needs to be demeaned. No one has to worry that someone is going to say "6 7" to them in the hallway.
Is it annoying? Sure. Anything becomes annoying if you hear it too much (I'm looking at you Christmas music). But I'll trade a little annoyance for harmless bonding any day. In addition, laughing releases dopamine. Every time kids are laughing at something quick and safe like "6 7", they are getting dopamine from social interactions rather than their phones. So to me that is a huge win! For those teachers really annoyed, I hope they take a step back and realize that kids are interacting face to face and laughing WITH each other. Not at each other. As I write this, I find myself wishing it never dies down.
Perhaps my favorite thing about it is that because it is meaningless and innocuous, I can get in on the joke. every once in a while I can work it in to wake up my class and give them that quick dopamine boost. When I start a new topic, I often joke that we need to warm up their brains so they don't pull a brain muscle. I have now begun to add that "Pulling a brain muscle is serious. It can mess you up for like... 6 7 days." Some students groan, some smile, some laugh... but they all listen. That is another win.
In a world where telling students to turn to page 69 results in uncontrollable snickering and giving a problem whose answer is 420 leads to inappropriate hand gestures and more laughing, I'll take "6 7" every day of the week and 6 7 times on Sunday.
Anybody have a scouting report on what the next "6 7" will be? I'd like to be one step ahead of my students.