Mixing up students with their siblings can sometimes happen and with the student population at McNick thriving with siblings, it can be difficult for teachers not to mix up students or compare them to their siblings.
“When I came to McNick so many teachers told me on the first day of school that I looked, acted, talked, laughed, and pretty much did everything like Hannah,” sophomore Julia Straub said.
Straub also said that it’s not just teachers who compare the two. Her sister’s friends tell her it’s very obvious that the two girls are related.
“We are mainly the same person except our hair color. It’s funny. I don’t think a day goes by where a student or a teacher doesn’t come up to me and say ‘Julia looks EXACTLY LIKE YOU!’ or ‘I literally just thought I was talking to your sister!’” senior Hannah Straub said.
Sophomore Jill Tore said that her teachers during freshman year tended to get her and her sister Olivia mixed up, but only because they are twins. She said that eventually teachers started to learn how to tell the two apart and now they don’t have as many problems their sophomore year. “I guess they just noticed differences in our personalities and faces. It gets easy to tell us apart once you get to know us,” Jill said.
Straub is not the only student who has faced this. Sophomore Noah Robb said that some of his teachers and classmates expect him to be like his older brother, senior Jacob Robb, who he said he is not like his brother at all. “All teachers like Jacob, and he has already paved a path for me with every teacher. They mostly all like me because of Jacob. It’s pretty great,” Robb said.
Sophomore Olivia Tore said she’s never really struggled with being compared to her older brother, Grant Tore, who graduated in 2014. “Jill and I have made our own accomplishments based on our own hard work without using Grant’s name,” Olivia said. “I’m glad I have him as my brother though. He has a good reputation, so I wouldn’t be mad if teachers did compare us,” Olivia added.
It’s not the teacher’s intention to mix up their students or compare them, it’s an accident that happens in other schools, too. “Everyone starts off with a clean slate,” English teacher Emma Colella said. Colella said that she does her best not to mix up or compare her students with their siblings. “Every student is different, and I try not to have expectations for a student based on their sibling(s),” Colella said. She also said she makes seating charts as a way to help her remember her students’ names and to prevent any mix up.
“I try to remember even though they are siblings, everyone is different and they should be treated that way,” Colella said.
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