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Britain's Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound
Twins
By Ruth
Manuel-Logan
Paula and Peter Imafidon are
just like any other 9-year-olds. They love laughing, playing on the
computer and fighting with each other. What sets these twins apart from
their peers, though, is that they are, hands down, prodigies who are about
to enter high school and make British history as the youngest to do so.
These precocious London-based tykes, known as the "Wonder Twins," floored
academics a year ago when they aced
University of Cambridge
's advanced mathematics exam. They are the youngest students to ever pass
the test.
The future little
scholars' father, Chris,
and mother, Ann, immigrated to
Britain from Nigeria
more than 30 years ago and have actually been down this prodigy route
before with their three older children, who are also overachievers.
The couple's
oldest daughter, Anne-Marie,
is now 20, but at age 13, she won a British government scholarship to take
undergraduate courses at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore . Christiana,
17, their other daughter, is the youngest student ever to study at the
undergraduate level in any British University at the age of 11. Youngest
daughter,Samantha,
now 12, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics
exams at the age of 6. She mentored the twins to pass their own math
secondary school test when they were also 6.
Even with all of
this, the proud dad denies that there is any particular genius in his
family. He does credit his children's success to the Excellence in
Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth. "Every child is a
genius," he said. "Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in
the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit.
Look at Tiger
Woods or the
Williams sisters -- they were nurtured. You can never rule anything
out with them. The competition between the two of them makes them excel in
anything they do."
The
darling duo are competitive to say the least, and this is what fuels them
to out-achieve each other. Paula said, "I am excited to pass, but I should
have got higher than Peter."
As
far as career paths Paula says she wants to be a math teacher, while Peter
aspires to be prime minister one day.
All
it takes is a dream.... |
