"your children smell and I don't want to touch them"

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/par...-1226767697365

Pretty much as it says in the title.

I can understand the teachers concern, but the way the note is written is just plain stupid and dumb.
Hell, even the special needs schools, preschools and some schools in the JP years will write something to the effect of: "Parents, please enclose a change of clothes in case your child has an accident." (for special needs kids, this includes nappies if needed, but is usually communicated privately)

I also do have to wonder though, about some of the parents. If you ARE sending your children to school with soiled clothes and not having bathed for days, then I wouldn't be sending a note home, I'd be reporting the parents for neglect!

[Greenday]

Could have been more tactful, but rather than be like "Holy crap, how did my kid turn into the smelly kid in class?" they go "DISCRIMINATION! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!"

[Andara Bledin]

If parents really are sending their children to school in soiled clothing, then it is a legitimate health issue. The note might be a bit callous, but how must the kids feel when the teacher avoids them or wrinkles her nose when she comes close?

I've been near people on the bus who were unclean, and it's hard not to vomit in their presence.

[catcul]

I hate to say this, but these parents are setting their children up for failure. I read a story about a college in Norway that banned a student because he decided that bathing was unnecessary.

My grandfather used to run a grocery store in Carolina Beach. He would give food to a man the locals called the Fort Fisher Hermit. He said he could smell the hermit before he could see him. In fact, he had to spray the store every time the hermit visited.

[Titi]

The problem I have with this is that the teacher also sent the letter to parents of kids that had STAINED CLOTHING! I went to my elementary schools with grass stains all over my pants, just due to playing over the summer and my children do as well.

[Andara Bledin]

Did you go to school at age 3-4 with stained clothing? Hell, you're still a toddler at that point. You don't really get grass stains until a little later.

Plus, my family was dirt poor, but we had play clothes and school clothes, and we grass stained our play clothes in the summer, not the stuff we wore for school. Seems pretty no-brainer to me.

[HYHYBT]

The note might be a bit callous, but how must the kids feel when the teacher avoids them or wrinkles her nose when she comes close?

Not to mention the other kids. It's hard to like someone who stinks that way, and that's going to show.

Sending a general letter like that isn't the best way to handle it, but the teacher probably thought it was a way to avoid singling anyone out.

Meanwhile, to the parents: if other equally poor families manage to send their children to school washed and in clean clothes, you can too.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Agreed. There wasn't a lot of money in my family and my mum used to buy a lot of our clothes from charity shops and jumble sales. However, when we went to school, we were always clean and wearing clean clothes. While in the UK uniforms are worn at school, you wouldn't believe the amount of people who were better off than us who sent their kids in wearing frayed shirts and jumpers with holes in the elbows. It's got nothing to do with money, or the lack of it; it's just laziness.

[s_stabeler]

I agree. There are better ways of communicating the sentiment, but I can't think of any situation where someone should be going to school in dirty clothes.

[anakhouri]

Did you go to school at age 3-4 with stained clothing? Hell, you're still a toddler at that point. You don't really get grass stains until a little later.

My kid had grass stains, food stains, blood stains and anything else you can think off by the time he was 18 months old. Toddlers run, and they fall. A lot.

Kids are filthy little monsters. Some stuff just won't come out no matter what you do, and why would I go and buy new clothes in 5T when he's going to outgrow them in a couple months? (he's 4, but he wears a size up) His stuff is clean but there might be a pasta sauce stain on the sleeve for instance, or paint on his pants knees. But at least they're clean.

Teachers deal with a lot. Unless she was a brand new teacher, the kids would have to be pretty disgusting to elicit that sort of reaction. The note was worded badly but it seems like a legitimate concern. There's a difference between a kid smelling sweaty after playing outside at recess, and their hygeine being an ongoing thing.

[fireheart17]

The problem I have with this is that the teacher also sent the letter to parents of kids that had STAINED CLOTHING! I went to my elementary schools with grass stains all over my pants, just due to playing over the summer and my children do as well.

That's the problem I see as well.

Soiled clothing? Definitely reporting unless the kid did it before school and the parent didn't send along another set of clothes.
Stained clothing? It's a preschool...>.>
Dirty clothing? how do you know that it's not from something the kid did during the day ie paint?

I'm used to seeing the kids at the schools I work at (uniforms are pretty much a 100% requirement down here...the schools that don't are usually alternative education schools ie Steiner) coming in with dirt or grass stains on their clothing.

[gremcint]

well the soiled part is not everyone means bodily function when they say soiled sometimes they do just mean really really dirty.

[HYHYBT]

Which is more likely: that the teacher is referring to grass stains and fresh dirt, or that they mean the kind that IS a problem and didn't think it would be necessary to spell things out in more detail?

[Titi]

That is when you speak to the parents of the smelly, dirty kids. You do not send out a note to every parent saying I don't want to come near your kids, because the parents of kids who aren't going into school that way will start wondering about their parenting. Especially since she required the parents to sign the note. What are they signing that they acknowledge that their child stinks?

[HYHYBT]

Having parents sign notes that are sent home is pretty standard; it's the simplest way to know the note got there.