1 week ago
26
I respectfully disagree with the suggestion that the use of “six-seven” represents a decline in logic or understanding among pupils (Letters, 29 December). From a developmental perspective, this kind of behaviour is a normal and even healthy part of growing up. Children and young people often adopt shared phrases, jokes or nonsensical trends as a way of belonging to a group. The meaning is not always the point; participation is.
As a teacher, understanding and acknowledging this behaviour helps me connect with pupils’ lived realities. When students feel seen and understood – rather than dismissed for engaging in harmless trends – trust is built. That sense of connection plays a crucial role in the learning process: pupils are more likely to engage, take risks and respond positively to guidance when they feel their world is recognised within the classroom.
Being part of a group – even one built around something as trivial as repeatedly saying “six-seven” – supports social development, identity formation and emotional wellbeing. Not everything children do needs to be logical, purposeful or productive. Playfulness and shared silliness are essential parts of human interaction and growth.
While it remains important to teach critical thinking and to help pupils reflect on why they do things, this should sit alongside an understanding that harmless humour does not indicate a lack of intelligence.
Hope in schools is fostered not only through kindness and honesty, but also through laughter, shared experiences and relationships built on mutual respect. Allowing space for these moments strengthens learning rather than undermining it.
Alexsandro Pinzon
Mitcham, London
“Six-seven” may well be, as Marlon Minty says, “the embracement of idiocy”, but I think that the “promotion of logic and understanding” is not best served by calling primary schoolchildren “students” – the kind of language inflation which has moved the term from clearly meaning those in further or higher education, to meaning anyone in secondary school, to now apparently meaning any school attender over five years old. Can play-group “scholars” be far behind?
Mike Hine
Kingston upon Thames, London
I read Marlon Minty’s letter on how saying “six-seven” is embracing idiocy with some sadness. I personally think Doctor Who put it best when the 14th Doctor asked Donna why Mrs Bean is funny – some things just are, to some people. In the same way Dick and Dom yelling “bogeys” at ever louder volumes was funny to a younger generation, or how my younger sister could be brought to hysterics by merely saying the word “pants” to her as a child.
If it’s not grounded in something harmful such as racism or sexism, I don’t think it does kids any disservice to enjoy the nonsensical. They find it funny; for us grownups, ours is merely to wonder why. When we pooh-pooh it from on high, or demand it makes sense, all we’re really doing is telling children that the things they find funny or enjoy are wrong, and with it we steal a little bit of their childhoods in a way that is unkind. We don’t have to understand it for them to enjoy it. It all boils down to a short sentence: let people have nice things. Like any fad, it will fade in time. Let them have the joy it brings for now.
Torran Turner
Littleborough, Greater Manchester
I must disagree with Marlon Minty about the “six-seven” craze when he says: “When we do stupid things without any understanding of what or why we are doing it, we reduce ourselves to idiots.” However, as Coco Khan says, it’s “deployed at random to annoy adults”. That is one point to it. I remember as a child in the 1960s doing very similar thingsFor example, the whole class would spread their fingers on their heads when a teacher entered the room – no idea why.
More to the point, embracing the illogical and nonsensical is a hallmark of surreal and absurd comedy, of the dadaism kind. Even though the kids may not invoke dada, it is the same illogical, surreal nonsense as “performance art”.
Ted Watson
Brighton
