The 6-7 TikTok trend among tweens and teens is leading to classroom bans
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The numbers "6" and "7" have become an efficient generational litmus test: if the digits inspire an echo and a hand gesture you're likely Gen Alpha, and if you're thinking that 7 "8" 9, you're probably not.
The big picture: Social media trends invading classrooms isn't new — and children baffling the adults around them is a time-honored dynamic. But the ubiquity of "6-7" is leading some schools to simply ban the use of the phrase, some teachers are sharing on TikTok.
Catch up quick: "6-7" comes from the rapper Skrilla's song "Doot Doot," in which he repeats "six-seven."
- A popular TikTok video shows a child at a basketball game yelling "6-7" into the camera right before a player makes a basket.
- The image of the child shouting has also been widely used and parodied, and the hand motion he makes in the video frequently accompanies the invocation of the phrase as a call-and-response, e.g. a teacher says "6-7," and students repeat the phrase, hand gestures and all.
- LaMelo Ball, a point guard for the Charlotte Hornets, has become embedded in the meme's tapestry — largely due to his height, 6 feet and 7 inches.
"There is no real meaning to it," content creator Philip Lindsay explains in one TikTok video. "It is a number that is fun to say, popularized by a meme with the hand motions, and it just doesn't mean anything."
By the numbers: "6 7" is the top search for "how to use [slang]" and "why do middle schools say" this year, according to Jenny Lee, lead data analyst at Google Trends.
- "Gen alpha translator" searches increased +790% over the last year and is the top trending type of "translator," per Lee's research.
What they're saying: Some teachers have taken to social media to express their frustration that the phrase can derail lessons, with some claiming they've outright banned it from their classrooms.
- "We are not saying the word '6 7' anymore," one teacher posted herself saying to her class on TikTok. "If you do, you have to write a 67 word essay about what the word means, and if you do it again, another 67 word essay, and after five times if you still do it, your essay is going to bop up to 670 words."
- In the video, she lets the classroom get one more use of the phrase out of their system before putting the rule into effect.
- "I put '6 7' on my banned words list and now they think it's funny to just do the motion," Hannah Elizabeth, a middle school teacher, said on TikTok.
Zoom in: School administrators are reportedly getting involved, too.
- Kellcey Robinson, a second grade teacher, said in a video that her school sent out an email banning the phrase.
- "My class wasn't allowed to since the beginning of the year anyway because I get annoyed by it, but this week it had amped up like crazy even with me reinforcing my rule... do I really think it's a bad word or mean something bad, no, it's whatever... but I'm so glad not to hear it."
The other side: There's opportunities to make lemonade out of lemons when it comes to kids, their slang, and their attention spans.
- One Michigan choir teacher, Taryn Gontjes, went viral for a video of her classroom singing a made-up song using "6-7" and a host of other Gen Alpha-isms.
- The video racked up over 3.6 million views on TikTok.
- "You can't take the 6-7 out of the 6th graders so embracing it is the only way it works. IT WORKS, PAL," Gontjes said in the video's caption.
Go deeper: Gen Alpha bears the brunt of schools banning cellphones
