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!) A possible solution to your problem would be to contact the counselor or psychologist to discuss the problem. Together you can find a way to teach the different aspects of other cultures, but this could back fire on the student, so another possibility would be to have a meeting with the parents. First talk with administration about the problem and how to help with setting up a meeting with the parents. The meeting needs to be done in a delicate manner to not offend the parents. You can discuss the problem that has arise in the class and what you want to do with a lesson on different cultures, but also make sure to tell the parents that this may cause more problems. Ask the parents what they think would be a good solution, so that they are involved. This may not be a good solution, but this is a hard case to help with.