Winning the War Against 67
How to build a class where students will thrive
I. An ode to 67
I am an unabashed enjoyer of 671. I have averaged three 67s a day for the past month, and that is okay2. These conversational mini-games make life more interesting and elicit stifled giggles where there would have been silence. 67 is decidedly harmless. So, why fight it?
The issue is that every week, I teach a few classes full of middle- and high-school students. And, for as much as I enjoy 67, they love 67. The kids cannot get enough of 67. Frankly, their use of 67 is gratuitous and uncreative; at times, an insult to wit.
Back in my day, we loved annoying our teachers. Though now that I sit at the other side of the desk, I want to know how to best interact with my kids in the face of their incessant meming. Some teachers have resorted to banning 67. Others have fully embraced 67. Though hilarious, I think banning 67 is wrong. And unfortunately, I think that fully embracing 67 is both somewhat embarrassing and ineffective.
Where is the middle ground? How can teachers give room to their young students for expression, laughter, and creativity, while also maintaining a respectful environment conducive to learning?
II. A few Anecdotes
I am full of takes about effective pedagogy, informed primarily by what I hated growing up. As a child, I hated being forced to do things without any justification. I hated being condescended to.
The teachers whom I liked were kind. My Grade 10 English teacher, Mr. B, was especially caring and compassionate. He conversed with each of his students and connected through shared interests. He rattled off Shakespearean insults at us when he saw us in the halls. He was unabashedly eccentric and fun, but he wasn’t afraid to set clear boundaries regarding class rules.
The best classrooms felt shared. My Grade 8 French teacher and my Grade 12 Math teacher explained the utility of different lessons. They let us joke around during class. They gave us clear benchmarks to meet and then gave us room to pace our learning. And they were accommodating.
III. A Losing Battle
67 is a meme, but it is also a cultural token. When a child proclaims and subsequently hits the 67, they are letting everyone know that they are in on the joke. When the rest of the class 67s, they too get to plant their flag in the ground. Once a meme like this reaches critical mass, it transcends jokes and becomes part of a generation’s identity.
And who am I to silence a culture? To suppress a child’s identity? With suppression, I empower the 67. But, as Unc3, I am also unable to join in on the game without positioning myself as an impostor. Directly addressing 67 is a losing battle—it’s a force too powerful to be stopped.
My hypothesis is that 67 can only be defeated by building an engaging learning environment. To combat these meme-outbursts, I need to construct an environment where coming to class is so fun, stimulating, and structured that there is no room left for 67 to breathe.
IV. My tactics for next semester
Below, I’ve compiled a list of four important considerations in leading a class. My sources include my thirteen years of experience in public schools (read more: here) and three years teaching, some conversations with my friends and colleagues, Jeffrey Kaplan’s “How to Do Well in College” YouTube series, and a 2008 paper, “Evidence-based Practices in Classroom Management: Considerations for Research to Practice.”
Consideration 1: Don’t be mean, be nice!
Children are stupid idiots, but one mustn’t treat them as such. I vividly remember resenting the teachers who yelled at me, the bitterness of feeling singled out, and the anxiety of entering those classrooms. Conversely, kindness is the key ingredient in a positive teacher-student relationship. Subsequently, a strong relationship facilitates students’ growth, academic achievement, and stability.
Consideration 2: Structure, Structure, and Active Learning
A well-structured class is magic. A clear, predictable, and effectively communicated class structure reduces volatility while improving academic and social behaviour. Physical structure matters as well—room for students to spread out and a distraction-minimized environment facilitates engagement.
Active learning reigns supreme. Listening to a lecture is rarely the most effective method of learning and retaining information. It also happens to be boring (in most cases). According to the literature, students learn better when they can participate in their education through activities, writing, and answering questions. Active learning is doubly effective, because a kid cannot hit the 67 if they are too busy writing or playing a game.
Consideration 3: Enforce the rules and praise frequently
Clear boundaries are important! To establish a prosocial learning environment, teachers should describe, display, and demonstrate simple class rules. Rules like “respect others” and “be kind” are, in some sense, platitudes. However, they are easy enough for children to understand and broad enough that they encapsulate most situations.
To incentivise rule following, teachers can simply praise or correct students contingent on their behaviour. Token economy systems are also quite effective—tying good behaviour to tangible prizes makes the social-contract-calculus much easier. Anecdotally, I enjoyed token economies where they were used. I have heard mixed reviews from others.
When enforcing rules, teachers should be empathetic. Quiet corrections of “bad” behaviour are more effective than any loud, angry, or conspicuous condemnations. Using a few simple words to correct students is more effective than full sentences; perhaps, because rewarding bad behaviour with attention, even if negative, can reinforce that behaviour. One interesting finding was that “teacher corrections should not outnumber acknowledgments.” Upon further reading, I found a few sources indicating that the ratio of positive to negative feedback in schools should reach 3-5:1; while the actual ratio looks as low as 0.56:1 in high schools.
Consideration 4: Force them offline
If possible, we should pursue Butlerian Jihad4; I will elaborate more on this in an upcoming piece, “Why TikTok is probably deadlier than Fentanyl.” Our next best option is to ban technology in the classroom. Kids lack a strong executive function and are bored easily. Forcing them to pay attention to class while resisting the siren call of the internet is a cruel exercise that teachers will perpetually lose.
I believe most social media is addictive, distracting, and “brain-rotting.” I do not want it in my class. Beyond my prejudice, the evidence consistently shows that students who use laptops perform worse overall compared to students who don’t. They promote transcribing rather than note-taking, they are distracting, and all of you should just get off my lawn!
V. School’s Out!
I feel bad for kids. Nobody respects their opinions or listens to their perspectives. This is fair, considering that kids are stupid idiots (see above); but unfortunate, nonetheless. I remember being imprisoned by school—I did not like it.
I attended public school my whole life. According to the Fraser Institute, my high school was ranked 163rd out of 248 in BC. Now, I teach for a private academy, where privileged kids get to learn about speech and debate from yours truly. Simply put, I’ve never had to face the insanity that public school teachers do, and I likely never will.
That being said, school truly is a critical window. It is where kids escape their bubbles and interact with the world. Teenage angst is powerful, and spending an average of 4.8 hours per day scrolling is powerful too, but the classroom and teachers have—I would argue—even more power to shape experiences and encourage long-term critical thinking. With a well-thought-out class structure, consistent and well-enforced rules, and kindness above all else, classes may be run better and students may be happier. 67 is a symptom of a larger problem. For as much damage as I perceive social media to have wreaked, I don’t think the war is lost quite yet.
For those who don’t know, “67” is a meme. One can 67 by moving their hands in a quick weighing scales motion, while proclaiming “six seeeevvvvennn.”
However, the other day, I was shadowing in the ED and an elderly gentleman explained that his pain “started 6-7 months ago” and I almost started laughing. I might be more doomed than I realize.
Certainly not chopped.
This is a Dune reference to destroying technology; please do not be scared by my Muslim name.