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 is a really sticky situation to handle. Some way someone is going to get hurt or offended. This being said, I do not think it's a great idea to contact the parents as the first solution. I would talk individually to the students that were teasing the new student and have them give me a reason why they are doing what they are doing. I would also let those students know that the odor may not even be because the student doesn't bathe. I would go through all possible solutions with the student. Then, I would think of something that is very smelly that we eat in our culture or something strange that we do in our culture that is not accepted in other cultures. Also, the teacher can try to open the windows in the classroom to circulate the air or maybe try some outside teaching activities so it won't be so fragrant like in the classroom.