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 think this is an issue that the counselor should be handling. Since the student is new, she could call a meeting with the parents to see how everything is going and how they think their child is adjusting to the new school. In this conference the parents may possible bring up the fact that their child is having difficulty making friends or that he feels other children are picking on him. this would be a perfect opportunity for the counselor to being up the body odor issue and give the parents some suggestions to remedy the problem. This also will take the load off of the teacher and now make her look as if she is picking on the family or their culture.