Sharing School with a Sibling — No Way or No Problem?

Aidan Kolb, Staff Reporter

Imagine a typical day at school — sitting in a Trinity class or at lunch. Now add your sibling to those situations.  To many, this addition may have just flipped their world completely upside down.

Everyone who has a sibling knows that at times they can be quite annoying at home. Would this be the case at school?  

Living in a brother’s shadow doesn’t really apply to me in a negative sense because I’m sitting in the shadow of a brother that does fine in school, so any negative effects wouldn’t pass down to me.

— eighth-grader Noah Kolb

According to some Trinity siblings, this is not the case most of the time. Some even said going to school with a sibling is a benefit.

St. Aloysius Catholic School eighth-grader Noah Kolb and and twins Thomas Clarke and Patrick Clarke,  Trinity sophomores, shared some thoughts.

Kolb, this reporter’s brother, said he really enjoyed having a sibling at the school he attends.

“I like having a familiar face in the crowd, especially at a large place such as a school. It gives me a sense of security,” Kolb said.

Kolb, two years younger than I, didn’t really see being at the same school with me as a distraction but rather as a bonding opportunity.

He said, “The younger sibling always has someone to go to when they don’t understand something because the older sibling has already gone through the same stuff.”

A big problem some younger siblings have is the difficulty of living in the older sibling’s shadow. This was not the case for him, according to Kolb.

He said, “Living in a brother’s shadow doesn’t really apply to me in a negative sense because I’m sitting in the shadow of a brother that does fine in school, so any negative effects wouldn’t pass down to me.”

The Clarkes agreed with much of what Kolb said.

“Because we’re in the same grade, it is more beneficial to both of us,” Thomas said. “We have the same class level, so we are easily able to help each other out with homework or anything like that.”

They noted that teachers tended to split them up by either placing them on opposite sides of the room or in separate classes altogether, but it doesn’t bother them all that much.

Patrick said, “The only real problem is if one gets in a fight with the other at home, the school day kind of forces you to be with them. But we don’t fight all that much anyway.”

 

Noah Kolb, Thomas Clarke and Patrick Clarke talk about attending school with a sibling………….videos by Aidan Kolb