One School, 19 Sets of Twins

They’re seeing double at Armstrong Elementary School in Garland, Texas. And double. And double.

The small Texas school has just five hundred thirty-nine students - and thirty-eight of them are twins. There are nine sets in the second grade alone.

It’s surely a sign of the trend toward twins - spurred on by fertility interventions. These days, one out of every thirty-three kids is a twin (compared to one in eighty back in the day). In 2004, there were more than one hundred thirty two thousand twin births recorded in the U.S. - more than any year prior (that was the latest year data is available on, no word on whether it’s risen in the past five years).

There’s no question there are more of them, but I’d hazard a guess they’re more spread out too. And they’re bringing more attention. Perhaps because because the hot button fertility drug issue (hello Octomom) make these parents an easy mark? The years have also been marked by advancements in medical technologies that keep twin pregnancies going and keep premie duos alive.

And perhaps I’m the anomaly that proves the rule, but I never thought twins were rare. I grew up in the eighties in an even smaller school than Armstrong (there were thirty-four kids in my graduating class). And there was one set of twins in my class, plus half of a set of a twins (his brother failed a year and ended up behind us). My next door neighbors had identical twin boys, I have a set of twin uncles (born in the sixties) plus a set of twin cousins.  None of these kids were born with fertility interventions.

Twins make up seven percent of the population at Armstrong. But they made up eight percent of the population in my third grade class.

Did you know a lot of twins growing up or are you meeting your first multiples as parents?

Image: MSNBC

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Tags: fertility drugs, fertility treatments, Jeanne Sager, Multiples, Octomom, pregnancy, school, seeing double, twin pregnancies, twins