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!) The first action I would take is to tell your students that making fun of others is not acceptable and does not demonstrate appropriate social skills. Then you should call his parents and approach it from a behavioral aspect. If I were you, I would ask them if their child had mentioned that his feelings had been hurt by anyone in the class. He may not realize other students are laughing at him because of his language barriers. I would tell them that I am addressing the issue of other students making fun of their child in my class and that I have higher expectations for my students. I would hope that starting the conversation in this way would lead them to question why and then I could discuss the odor issue and the norms in America for personal hygiene in a way that is not insulting.