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!) I have been in a similar situation where a student began to smell of body odor due to a lack of bathing and deodorant. This student was not an immigrant and I asked the parents about the issue during a conference. I was a little nervous on how to bring up the issue and tried my best not to offend them and they actually admitted that they had smelled it too. They were very gracious of my concern and he began to shower more often and wear deodorant. Your situation is a little different because he is from Eastern Europe and some cultures there do not emphasize bathing and preventing body odor as much. Because this is more of a cultural issue you must proceed with caution on how you address the issue with the parents. I think that going to the school nurse and the school counselor would be a good idea. Both of them could probably give you some tips and advice on how to approach the issue. I think that having a meeting with the parents would be a better option than sending a note or simply calling. I would suggest bringing the issue up in a way that shows you are not disrespecting their culture, but that his odor may cause other students to notice and because it is not something they're used to they may start saying things to him that could hurt his feelings. Hopefully the parents would understand your good intensions in the conversation and they would be gracious for your information. I think you would have to talk to them and get a sense of how they are before bringing the topic of body odor up to them. If they seem to be offended easily or defensive of their culture it may be more difficult to tell them. just remind them that you are discussing the issue with the best intensions for their son.