Not since 69 has a number caused this much disruption.
“6-7,” pronounced “six-seveeeeen,” is haunting school halls across the country (including South Park Elementary), making it the Gen Alpha nonsense phrase of the moment. Kids are shouting it in classrooms when a teacher turns to page 67, when lunchtime is 6 to 7 minutes away or for no reason at all.
“It’s like a plague — a virus that has taken over these kids’ minds,” said Gabe Dannenbring, a seventh-grade science teacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “You can’t say any iteration of the numbers 6 or 7 without having at least 15 kids yell, ‘6-7!’”
It’s a joke without a punchline (or a setup, for that matter). 6-7 means nothing, but using it can make a student feel like a member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers.
“It becomes a language game to them that, it would seem, only folks in their group know how to play,” said Gail Fairhurst, a University of Cincinnati professor who teaches leadership communication (and Gen Alpha speak).
Skibidi toilets and rizzes come and go. 6-7 is likely destined for the slang graveyard soon, now that adults are talking about it so much. But there’s something almost profound about its infinite interpretations, its refusal to be defined.
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