Pompey, nickname for Portsmouth

[James A. Landau]

My uncle had twin daughters, three weeks older than me.  He made a point of making sure that the two were never in the same class (apparently back in those days the school system did not have a rule about twins).  Theory?  Perhaps, but the two, although twins, were very different.  Kay was brash and outgoing, Rebecca was bookish and introverted.  Putting the two in the same class would have resulted in each one comparing herself unfavorably with the other.  Also, there is a strong tendency for teachers and classmates to assume that twins are twins and therefore should be equally good both socially and academically.  I'm sure my uncle was right.

But some twins thrive on the competition between each other.  I would say there is no universally applicable rule, but never assume that a pair of twins is better off kept together in class until you have observed them carefully.

Incidentally, in one of my classes there were a boy and a girl who were half-siblings and, along with their mutual first cousin, spent all of high school in the same classes.  (Their mother must have been very busy, having between January 1 and December 31 had a child, gotten divorced, gotten remarried, and had another child.  I believe both children were born in wedlock, even though they had different last names.)

    - Jim Landau

"White people have no souls" - Baron Munchausen

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
Sent: Mon 12/11/2006 4:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pompey, nickname for Portsmouth



<snip>

Way OT: I've read that white educationists consider it a bad thing to
allow twins of any kind to share a classroom. That's not true, is it?
Can it really be the case that there's a theory that makes that claim?

-Wilson







From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
Sent: Mon 12/11/2006 4:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pompey, nickname for Portsmouth



<snip>

Way OT: I've read that white educationists consider it a bad thing to
allow twins of any kind to share a classroom. That's not true, is it?
Can it really be the case that there's a theory that makes that claim?

-Wilson


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