Justin......or is it Nicholas?

Now that I've begun teaching at my 6th school in seventeen years, the phenomenon I have jokingly referred to as Doppelganger Students has once again come to the surface.  Doppelgangers, according to Wikipedia (and The Vampire Diaries) are someone's living double.  Of course, I take this notion with a grain of salt, but having taught at half a dozen schools during my career, it has become an interesting pastime of mine to notice how many of my newfound students look, and even act, amazingly like students I had previously taught.

Over the past two days, as I handed out name tags at my new school, I spent the better part of the day initially thinking, "There's Eric.  That's Karla.  Oh, look, it's Isaiah!" only to find that, instead, they were Joseph, Estefani and Kiani.  Whoops.  My bad.  But can you really blame me?  Until you really get to know a student, all you have to go by is physical appearance and maybe a smidgeon of their personality.  And first impressions, however accurate or inaccurate they may be, naturally lead me to Eric, Karle and Isaiah.  A few years back, while teaching a class of 2nd graders at a new school, I decided not to back away from this confusing phenomenon but instead to honor and, indeed, celebrate it with them.  As I attempted to learn the students' names via some tried and true Orff name games, I was doing pretty well until I got to Justin.  Unfortunately, I kept calling him Nicholas.  Every time I did so, the class laughed a little and corrected me.  Finally, I broke down and, with good humor and patience, explained that it was just because he reminded me of one of the students I taught at my previous school.  Rather than taking offense at such a notion, Justin was intrigued.  For their part, his classmates were extremely eager to find out what their "other" names were.  And, not wanting to disappoint them, I went around the circle and named names.  And, for those who did not have a virtual double at a previous school, I simply told them they were themselves.  Eventually, I learned all of their correct names and the Doppelgangers ceased to exist.

As music teacher, I have observed an interesting, related phenomenon among my students over the years that might be called Musical Doppelgangers.  It's the phenomenon that students express when they insist that a song they have just sung is called by another name.  Well, that may ring true for a few folk songs or nursery rhymes for the younger set:  Twinkle Twinkle and The ABCs, Yankee Doodle and The Barney Song (egads!).  At least a dozen echo songs I use on a routine basis have the same melody.  So many classroom teachers use piggy back songs to teach all manner of subjects from counting to spelling to days of the week that Musical Doppelgangers do seem to exist.  And one of my favorite Doppelganger moments happens just after I finish teaching a song I know I've never taught my students before and Karla/Estefani asks, "Didn't you teach us that in _____ grade?"  But when students insist that Old MacDonald is really called BINGO, I have to take a stand and be the Music Teacher.  Sorry Justin, er, Nicholas.  They may sound similar, but the melodies and words are indeed different.  Let's sing each one again so you can hear.  After that, at least for a moment, the Doppelganger spell is broken.