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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!) I think that for this situation it is important to communicate with the parents and the student. I would not send a note home because it could be misinterpreted or appear disrespectful. I think that a phone or in-person conversation would be the best way to approach the parents so that the topic can be discussed delicately. Another person mentioned that it is important to focus the conversation around the child's well-being and feelings, and I agree 100%. I don't know that talking with the class would be helpful to stop the teasing because body odor is something that Americans react to very strongly. It is also important for this child to learn that body odor can have very negative repercussions, for example in the workplace, here in the US. On the other hand, it could be interesting to have a discussion/lesson in class about how various topics, such as hygiene and cleanliness, food, greetings, vary among many cultures. Maybe students could do some internet research on a number of topics and present their findings to the class. This would help broaden the relatively-homogeneous class' ideas about how things are different in other cultures. |
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