The San Diego math teacher who loves the "6-7" TikTok craze
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A San Diego middle school math teacher is fully embracing the viral "6-7" phenomenon, making 6-7 callouts part of her lessons and handing out 6-7 stickers as prizes.
The big picture: Teens and tweens are so crazy for 6-7 that it's become disruptive in some classrooms, leading to punishments (like essays with 67 words) or complete bans on any numbers between 5 and 8. But some teachers are taking a different approach.
Catch up quick: No one knows exactly how 6-7 emerged from the online swamp and into mainstream culture, but it's likely some combination of the song "Doot Doot" (the rapper Skrilla says "6-7" a lot) and TikTok videos about basketball.
- Now Gen Alphaers can't help but call out 6-7 at every opportunity.
- The trend also involves a hand movement that is hard to describe in writing. But any young person in your life would likely be glad to demonstrate it.
Behind the scenes: Andrea Miller, a middle school math teacher at Old Town Academy, moonlights as a social media influencer and said she knew about the meme last spring before her students did.
- She can't believe it lasted through the summer, but, as anyone with a young person in their lives knows, it did.
What they're saying: Miller told Axios that anytime she says 6, 7 or, even worse, 67, "it's a whole ordeal."
- But she's using it to make class more fun.
- "I'll be like, 'How do we get rid of a 6 multiplied by our variable?' Somebody in the class will be like '6-7,'" she said. "I like to just roll with it. We laugh and then we move on. And then they'll be like, 'We divide both sides of the equation by 6.'"
Case in point: Miller makes 67 the answer to math problems. For example:
- 67 to the power of zero is 1.
- 67 is a prime number.
Fun fact: Miller already avoids 69 and 420, other numbers that make middle schoolers laugh.
Friction point: Still, kids need to learn there's a place and time for yelling out random numbers.
- "We have some teachers trying the viral response, 'write a 67-word paragraph on TikTok trends,'" Margaret Cannon, the principal at Language Academy in the College Area, told Axios.
Yes, but: Cannon thinks 6-7 builds community at school.
- Kindergartners through eighth graders can join together in a 6-7 call-and-response and then give a high five.
- "It's safe and fun," Cannon said. "Yes, I do reach my limit of hearing '6-7' by lunch time, but I refuse to roll my eyes because it's special for each kid — because they get to participate in something for them, and that's what's important."
What's next: Miller and Cannon suspect that grown-ups learning about 6-7 means the trend is nearing its end.
- "Adults at Language Academy take full responsibility for overusing the phrase 'aura points' and completely eliminating it from the teen lexicon," Cannon said.
- Miller said she's heard hints of a new craze involving 41, but at least it's also a prime number.