Spending quality time with family is difficult for busy high schoolers. For those who share classes with their siblings, getting enough family time is the least of their worries.

Senior Will Thacher shares Civics, AP European History, AP English, a free period, as well as a room, Boy Scouts and a friend group with his fraternal twin senior Sam Thacher.

History teacher Mark Cowherd taught Will and Sam in separate AP US History classes last year and teaches them in the same AP European History class this year. Cowherd cannot recall ever teaching any other siblings together in a class before.

“Even though they’re twins, they’re still individuals, they both have different strengths, and they’re both good to have in class,” Cowherd said.

Will said the benefits of sharing a class with Sam are that only one person needs to remember what the homework is and that they can study for tests together.

“It can be fun when we have discussions and we can get in arguments or make each other mad,” Will said.

Science teacher John Savage was happy when he found out his sister, sophomore Katy Savage, was placed in his first period Honors Chemistry class.

“It’s fun to be able to share with her the stuff that I love,” John said.

Their unusual circumstance makes providing feedback a two-way street.

“I get to have another critic who fills me in,and she always lets me know if I can do things differently,” John said.

Having Katy as a student allows John to observe her learning behavior and interaction with peers.

“It’s just a side to Katy that I haven’t seen,” he said.

Freshman Kay Sibal compared her reaction to having Mandarin II with sophomore brother Keith Sibal to that of having a class with any other friend.

“It doesn’t really make a difference that he lives in the same house as me,” Kay said.

Sharing a class allows the Sibal siblings to study for tests together like the Thachers can, speak Mandarin to each other, observe what is difficult for each other in class and work on these areas at home together.

Nonetheless, having a class with a sibling can lead to negative consequences.

“The only disadvantage is if one of us does worse on a test and we’re in the exact same class, then our parents will assume one of us didn’t study,” Will said.

Grading a sibling’s tests, as science teacher John Savage does with his student and sister sophomore Katy Savage, is another special situation that arises.

“It’s tough to grade her work because she’s a very good student and doesn’t make very many mistakes, but when she does make a mistake, it hits very close to home,” Savage said.

Other students want to completely avoid sharing a class with a sibling.

Junior Philip Kim, who is sharing a class with senior brother Paul Kim for the first time, falls in this category. They both have AP Environmental Science sixth period.

“He basically just spies on me during class,” Philip said.

Although Philip said that learning with Paul is more collaborative now.

“Try to switch out as soon as possible, and if you can’t, then probably do homework together,” Philip said.

In the case of the Thacher twins, they have AP European History and AP English together because these two classes only occur during one period.  Unless siblings enroll in single-section classes like these, the counseling office can make changes based on siblings’ requests to transfer.

“If a student or parents requests that siblings not be in the same class, then we do our best to accommodate that,” counselor Ashley English said in an email. “The only situation where we wouldn’t be able to is if there were only one section of a class.”

Keith and Kay both did not feel the need for such measures.

“Having a sibling in a class certainly is fun, but it’s not that big of a deal as many people think it is,” Keith said.

John hopes that Katy leaves their experience with an impression similar to his.

“It’s kind of hit me how incredibly unique this is and I hope she understands that it’s as unique as I view it,” John said.