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!) Setting up a parent conference to inform the parents and students of the situation that is taking place at school, would be a great idea, but first talk to the student's other teachers. When you talk to the other teachers, you will find out if the student has the smell all day long, towards the end, or only at certain times during the day. I had a student this past year that was a prime example of a student that had a bad smell in some classes, but in others, the teachers never noticed. After his teachers sat down and talked, we found out he had the bad smell right after connections, which was PE and his body odor was the culprit for the problem. Since we discussed as group before the confrontation, it helped us narrow down where the issue was coming from. Our follow step was to inform tht counselor about what was going on and she took care of it from there and it was a smooth solution. This is not the case in all "smelly kid" situations, but it should always be the first step to help narrow down what the causes of the smell are coming from.