Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Smelly Kid I guess I am still considered a novice teacher because I have been teaching for four years only. I am an elementary school teacher who teaches in a mostly White suburban setting. Couple of weeks ago a new student joined my classroom. He and his parents recently moved from Eastern Europe. His father works at the local university as a music professor. I am not sure what his mother does. He is a wonderful child. Although he speaks little English, he tries to participate in class activities and to make friends with others in the classroom. Couple days after he arrived, I noticed a strange smell around him. I was sure that it was body odor. The other students in the classroom started noticing it too. They started making fun of him. I learned in my multicultural classes when I was at the university that not all cultures promote taking showers everyday, and that body odor is not considered a problem everywhere in the world. Now I have a big dilemma. If I tell my student about it, I might embarrass him. If I sent a note to his parents, I may appear disrespectful toward their culture. But the way he is treated in the classroom by the other students is becoming a real problem. What should I do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) This would be a tough situation for me as well. I have traveled to Europe on multiple occasions and this was something that I noticed as well. They do not consider deodorant and cologne / perfume to be a good thing in certain areas in Europe. Being that I was in their country, I knew it was just a difference in culture and that they simply did things differently. Yes the smell did bother me, but I knew it was just based on where we were from as to what was considered "smelly." I think I would try and somehow educate the other students about the differences in culture and that in some places things were done differently…like with the deodorant and lack of showers, etc. I would also talk to the student individually and talk to him about these differences. I would not pressure him one way or another. I would not try and embarrass him or talk bad about his culture. I would just teach him about how it's done here and let him make his own decision. He could make the decision as to whether he could stand up for himself and tell others why he does what he does, or he could change the way he does things in that department and do things more like others in his class. I would leave the decision up to him though.