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!) Maybe you could incorporate this as a lesson into your classroom somehow. Maybe you could discuss the values, culture, and practices from around the world and how they differ from ours. I would discuss within the classroom that there is no "right" or "wrong" practice, and the way we live in this country is not the "right" way, but rather the way we are used to living. Other countries may view our way of living as different and out of the ordinary. Maybe exposing the other students and engaging them in cultural differences will help more to understand and be less judgmental? It is worth the shot!!