If you’d like to truly mortify yourself in front of a young person, try asking the meaning of a phrase that’s being repeated in schools around the country like an incantation: “6-7”.

The conversation might go something like this. You’ll be informed that it doesn’t have a definition — it’s just funny, OK? And also, isn’t it a little bit embarrassing that you’re asking?

“There’s not really a meaning behind 6-7,” explains Ashlyn Sumpter, 10, who lives in Indiana. “I would just use it randomly,” says Carter Levy, 9, of Loganville, Georgia. Dylan Goodman, 16, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, described the phrase as an inside joke that gets funnier with each grown-up who tries and fails to understand it.

“No offence to adults, but I think they always want to know what’s going on,” she says.

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