67 in the Classroom: A Survival Guide for Teachers

We asked teachers what they did about 67. The answers were consistent and a little bleak. Here is what worked, what did not, and what made it worse.

Made it worse

1. Banning it. Turns a reflex into a rebellion. The silent hand version appears within the hour.
2. Explaining it. Reading a definition of the meme out loud is the most 67 thing that can happen in a classroom. The room will not recover.
3. Getting visibly annoyed. The reaction is the reward. Every sigh is a point on the board.

Did nothing

• Skipping page 67. They noticed. They always notice.
• Saying "sixty-seven" very deliberately. Also noticed. Also funny.
• Detention. Adds a story to the meme.

Actually worked

1. The budget. "One six seven per lesson, class-wide. Use it when it counts." Kids negotiate among themselves about when to spend it. Compliance is high because the joke becomes strategy.
2. The bad version. Do the gesture once, wrong: hands together, too fast, say "sixty-seven". The room goes silent with second-hand embarrassment. Do not do it twice.
3. Ownership. Let the class name one thing "the 67 thing": a plant, a chair, the bell. The number gets a home and stops colonising everything else.
4. Time. Every teacher who said "I just waited" reported it faded in their room within two months, whatever was happening in the hallway.

For maths teachers specifically

You cannot avoid 6 and 7. Use them on purpose, early and often, until the reaction wears out. One teacher started every lesson with a 6-and-7 problem for a week. By Friday the class was bored of it. Boredom is the only thing that has ever beaten a meme.

Why we care

We made a game about the number and we would like teachers not to hate us. If the game helps by giving the number somewhere else to live, good. If it does not, the budget trick still works.