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!) In my opinion I'm not sure how involved as a teacher I would get in this one other than to intervene when the students are teasing this child and tell them bullying of any kind will not be tolerated. Child who have particular orders is just another day in many of the schools I"ve worked in, granted with some foreign students that smell takes a whole different meaning. I personally would bring things up to the student, maybe discuss with him if he is aware of why he is being teased, and if he wants to do anything personal that would make it stop. I would make sure the kid understands that he isn't doing anything bad, the other kids are the ones who are wrong for teasing him, but to make his life easier perhaps he could try and adhere to American standards of hygiene. Again, the important point here is for this student to understand he isn't doing anything wrong, the other students are for teasing him but perhaps he could make life easier on himself by engaging in X, Y or Z behaviors.