Seeing Double

Wissinger twins now teach together at South High

Pete+and+Steve+Wissinger+pose+for+a+picture+in+front+the+St.+Louis+flag--where+they+both+reside

Gavin Brady

Pete and Steve Wissinger pose for a picture in front the St. Louis flag–where they both reside

If you have seen a familiar face in the hall, heard a recurring voice, or feel like you have had a certain teacher twice, this might be due to the Wissinger twins.

Pete and Steve Wissinger are identical twins that starting this year, work at South together. Pete is a History teacher and Steve is an English teacher.

Before South, Peter Wissinger worked at Rosati-Kain, an all-girls Catholic school for nine years, but he said he was looking for change. He decided he would like to work at a public school and Steve recommended Pete to work at Parkway South. After hearing such good things about the Parkway district, Pete interviewed for the position. In April he was offered the job, and starting this year the two twins have been working side by side.

Pete and Steve agreed that their similar careers most likely evolved from their parents.

“Our mother was a grade school teacher and our father taught a shop class, therefore we grew up all around teachers,” Steve said.

The twins said their parents influenced their mannerisms and careers in many ways.

“Because of the constant learning environment and household, we were both good students, you could even call us nerds. That is both a big part of both of our personalities,” said …

Pete and Steve Wissinger both agreed that working together is wonderful. They even have started carpooling together each morning.

“It saves time and is nice to catch up with each other every day,” he said.

They agreed that they have not had any problems working together.

“We have always been close and we were roommates in college, so it’s more like returning to sharing everything, nothing new,” Steve said.

Although this twin bond is clearly special and they are good friends, Steve explained that they get mixed up often.

“I often get emailed by his students and mine email him. Many freshmen would even mix us up in person during the first few weeks,” he said.

Freshman Alexa James, has them both as teachers. She says they have lots of similar commonalities.

“Their voice is identical and they have a lot of the same interests. It often feels like you just keep going on to the same teacher,” said James.

Freshman Abigail Berenath also has the Wissingers in class.

“I agree that their teaching statements are very similar. I even believe they could teach a combined class,” she said.

The twins might even be interested in teaching a Histolish class together, based off of Amber Rice and Melissa Gebhard’s sophomore combined World History and Honors English 2 class.

“English is my second favorite subject after history, so I think it would work well and be very interesting,” Pete said.

Steve agreed.

“It could be fun and interesting, we work well together and think alike so planning the class would come naturally,” he said.

Steve and Pete Wissinger said they are thrilled to see what the rest of their years working together will bring them.

“We are both excited to consider the idea of maybe working in the same class or even combining some lessons here and there,” Steve said.