For weeks, Christina Franciosa, a choir teacher at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Baltimore City, avoided teaching her final page of sheet music. Not because of its difficulty — but because of its concert markings: 6-7.
Through TikTok and other social media platforms, the viral number pairing has become a punchline, often chanted, repeated and echoed in an exaggerated tone among students. Though the numbers don’t mean much, the disruption in the classroom is clear.
“My kids were frustrated because they all got like zeros on an exit ticket because this kid wouldn’t stop saying it,” Franciosa said, noting that exit tickets are brief end-of-class assessments meant to show what students grasped that day.
TikTok Trends Flood the Classroom
The “6-7” jokes, she said, are just the beginning. Viral TikTok dances, audios, memes, and what many call “brainrot” humor, a nonstop stream of hyper-specific online references, are infiltrating classrooms every day.
“They will do like, TikTok dances just like anytime, like just stand up and start doing that,” Franciosa said.
Other times, she said, students will say “good boy,” to one another, referring to a viral TikTok trend that uses the phrase when a police officer was asked to give his name and badge number.
Another instance, a student told another student that he looked like Tung Tung Tung Sahur, a TikTok Italian/Indonesian “brainrot” character generated by AI. The trend, which exploded in early 2025, features absurd, cartoonish characters whose repeated catchphrases make them instantly recognizable and easily imitated.
Concerningly, Franciosa said students are exposed to much more explicit content as well.
“These kids are singing like, ‘give me head top,’” Franciosa said, reciting lyrics to the viral TikTok song “BOP” by Big Boogie and DJ Drama. “I’m like, ‘Do you know what that means?’ It’s hard to navigate if they understand the sexual implications of that.”
Franciosa said due to the content they watch, they seem to grow up more quickly.
“They’re so exposed to sexual content at such a young age now. There is no ‘tween’ anymore. You are a child and then you’re a teenager.”
Trinity Riggle, an ELA and social studies teacher for third grade at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, hears references like 6-7 and more on a daily basis.
“I probably hear it at least 20 times a day and that’s like lowballing it. I’m very thankful that I’m not a math teacher because I can’t even imagine,” Riggle said.
How Teachers Respond and How Students React
Teachers aren’t the only ones who are fed up with the disruptions–some students are, too. Riggle said in some cases, students are taking matters into their own hands and attempting to handle it for her.
“They’ve made papers that are like ‘No 6-7 Club,’ and they have other kids in the class sign it,” Riggle said.
Depending on the situation, she might ignore it, or sometimes even play along.
“What can help with making it less cool or exciting to do is if I start to make the joke a lot as well,” Riggle said. “If they hear it constantly coming from me, then it is less cool to them.”
Riggle said although the references are annoying, they are ultimately harmless. However, darker jokes creep up in her classroom, too. In particular, she said students will make jokes about having P. Diddy parties.
“I’m like, that is scary that you have access to that type of information,” she said. “That kind of media are not things that they should be exposed to.”
Stacy Wagaman, a North Baltimore County middle school math teacher with 22 years of experience, has seen major changes in classroom behavior since COVID-19.
“It’s the constant repetition of like noises and sounds that I used to not hear prior to the explosion of all of that TikTok and brainrot and those types of things,” Wagaman said.
Wagaman describes students as being in a “constant state of receiving information” through their devices.
“They’re just on overload 24/7. As soon as it comes to their mind, it just pops out,” she said.
With TikTok and Instagram Reels feeding students constant entertainment, the classroom has begun to compete with an endless stream of digital dopamine. Wagaman says the results are students who struggle to stay on task and teachers who feel pressured to perform just to hold their attention.
“We have to be exciting and flashy and new and inventive every day just to maintain what we used to be able to do,” Wagaman said. “It’s really hard to do that when everything is instant for them on a computer screen or on a phone.”
And the challenge doesn’t stop when the final bell rings. Wagaman acknowledges that development and support require reinforcement beyond school walls.
“It’s not just a battle from nine to three while kids are in school. We’ve got to get that support at home, too.”
A Push for Less Screen Time
Just like Wagaman, other educators believe that reducing screen time is a necessary shift.
Rachel Meyers, a first grade teacher at Lutherville Lab in Baltimore County who has been working there for 30 years, said progress starts with reducing children’s reliance on devices and social media.
For her, a step in the right direction looks like “limiting social media across the board” and “limiting the access to the device, period.”
“How about handing them a book, handing them some crayons, handing them a toy that they have to manipulate, rather than watching a screen?” Meyers said.
Looking ahead, Wagaman sees hope. This year, Baltimore County implemented a new policy called “Off and Away, Every School, Every Day!” that prohibits phone usage.
“We’re seeing a huge increase in student engagement because it’s like they don’t have that temptation 24/7,” Wagaman said. “A device is a great tool, but it shouldn’t be our only tool. Nothing transitions instantaneously, but I think we’re making those strides.”
