(True Story:)
When I first went to Australia in the (Irish) winter of 1974, I ended up in Far North Queensland. This is a rain forest area and is reasonably close to the Gulf of Carpentaria where some of the movie “Crocodile Dundee” was filmed.
In that part of the country, at that time of the year, the daily temperatures can reach well into the three digits with extremely high humidity. I settled in to my new school and surroundings, teaching fourth grade and next door to me was a new Australian colleague, Gary W., teaching fifth grade.

In his class Gary had one of the children of an Irish family ---- a “true” Irish family, born and bred and just recently arrived in the country. Unfortunately, these particular people did not see the necessity nor efficacy for the full use of soap, shampoo or deodorant in their daily lives. The consequences of this thinking soon became very evident in school, and the rest of Gary’s class and others in the school began a cacophony of complaints about the smell.

Not wanting to cause any major problem with a new immigrant family and knowing my own heritage, Gary came to me and asked my advice in handling such a delicate situation. I suggested that he simply write a note home, explaining to the parents that here in Australia things were much different than in Ireland.

The note advised that since the heat is very intense and with the added, high humidity, we ALL sweat profusely and we ALL need to bathe much more frequently than was necessary in the more temperate climate. I also advised Gary to let the parents know that the school even had special provision for students and teachers to take advantage of being able to shower during school hours and correct the odorous effect of our constant sweating.

Gary typed and sent this nice note home to the parents with the necessary suggestions.
The next morning, he waited with baited breath for the response, but nothing was forthcoming. Finally, in desperation, he asked: “Did you give that note to your mother?”
The answer came back loud and clear: “Yes, Sir and me mum sent ya a note back”.
Gary took the now crumpled paper containing his advice to the parents and saw an addendum note to himself from the mother.
It read as follows:

“Dear Teecher:
I sends me kids to school to be teached, not to be smelled!!!”

There was no further communication.
We all just learned to live with it !!