Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Ingrid - It's Not Easy Being Different
Ingrid sighed. Sometimes it was hard to be different. She'd been here over two years already -- you'd think the novelty would wear off!
Ingrid had moved from Switzerland a little over two years ago to live with her aunt and uncle. They lived near a school that was highly rated to prepare people for college. She and her parents lived in a small mountain village, and since Ingrid wanted to go into medicine, her parents felt it would be best for her to go to school in America.
In some ways, living in America now was wonderful. Ingrid did enjoy her new school. She was able to take advanced placement classes and even earn some college credits while she was in high school. There were many choices for extra curricular activities. She loved the science and math classes she was in and took them very seriously. Unfortunately, some of her classmates did not.
Some of her fellow students took school seriously, but a lot of them fooled around. Also, several of them seemed to think Ingrid was a great deal of fun to tease. They would mimic her accent and roll their eyes, calling her "Dr. Ingrid."
Most of the time, Ingrid didn't let it get to her, but for some reason, this week the teasing had been particularly bad. The class was dissecting frogs, and unlike many of the girls, Ingrid found it most interesting. At one point, she again raised her hand to answer a question that most of the others did not know the answer to. So, instead of listening, one of the students sneered,
"Why didn't you just stay in your own country and let Americans have a chance?"
That was the last straw. Ingrid ran out of the room with tears in her eyes. She just didn't feel welcome here! She ran into the girl's restroom and wept.
Within a few minutes, Ingrid heard the squeak of the girl's room door.
