“I could sum it up in four words,” he said. “Like the doctors I try my best not to hurt anyone, yeah, ‘First, do no harm” is the way I believe about teaching kids.” He went on to explain that he had come to this philosophy through years of experience listening and interacting with children. He said that he realized that each child was very different in their aptitudes and needs and did not always fit nicely into a standardized curriculum intent on cultural homogenization. Forcing Shakespeare down the craw of a teenager who is something of a mechanical genius, for example, probably enlightens neither Shakespeare nor the youth.

I must agree. In her never-ending attempts to force learning down my throat, my fourth grade teacher stood me in front of the class and on three occasions tore up my spelling homework in front of my classmates. She was successful, but for years afterward, I cringed inside whenever the scenes rose up out of the cesspool of my suppressed memories and replayed in my mind.

However, I never made overly simple sentences with spelling words ever again; such “babyish” sentences (as she called them) as “the quantity is many” or “the paper is white.” To this day, I am a little scared of the short, simple sentence and must check a tendency to pile on phrases and clauses to be sure that I “have enough words in the sentence.”

Primum non nocere or “First, do no harm” is identified with the Hippocratic oath that medical doctors take. The phrase is not actually part of the oath but is in some other writings of the great Greek physician. (The oath does refer to "refraining from deleterious and mischievous actions."). Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, also spoke Greek rather than Latin. You can read a translation of the oath here.

In my own life, I see its wisdom from the attitudes toward the earth expressed in organic farming. I related in my article, Organic Touchstone, the importance that I felt of a holistic relationship with human beings and the earth. With organic farming, I see that I am expressing the virtue of doing no harm when I do not overburden and poison the soil with pesticides, insecticides and artificial fertilizers. Working with the soil, I use natural methods of composting and pest control.

Self-righteousness is the great enemy of the philosophy of "no harm." Yet, it is so easy to believe that you have the proper solution to whatever ails self or others. The old saying that "pride goeth before a fall" is certainly evident here. Here, just read this book, study the works of this spiritual master, try some counseling, or just take a walk.

How easy it is to feel as if you have the answers; how easy to force them onto someone else not knowing the life experience of that human being, not knowing if you are only making things worse as you "prescribe" your remedy. Sometimes, only God knows what that person needs. The rest of us need to stand off a bit, maybe observe closely for a while and take action—if needed—rather gently and with a whole lot of respect and humility for the person or situation.

I decided to research this truism on the Web. One of the first sites that I came across is one actually entitled First Do No Harm, a site that offers “An Alternative Approach For Assisting Clients With Weight Related Concerns.” This site, targeted for health professionals, examines, among other ideas, how the thin, body image perpetuated by the media affects the lives of Americans, particularly women. The idea here is that not everyone is capable of achieving the slender cultural ideal with which the media bombards us day and night promoting anorexic-looking models and movie stars. While we can achieve a healthy weight, we may not necessarily resemble Meg Ryan or Russell Crow. To insist upon this ideal is to do great harm to those with body image issues.

There is actually a movie called, First, Do No Harm starring Meryl Streep. In an interview Ms. Streep talks about her character, a mother who discovered just prior to brain surgery on her epileptic child that medical authorities were not telling her about a special "ketogenic" diet that was often very effective in reducing seizures in epileptic children. The rule of doing no harm was not followed because though most doctors knew of the diet, it was not emphasized as a treatment in most medical schools. Switching the child to this diet produced a veritable miracle in seizure reduction and surgery was aborted. First, do no harm!

The ethical dilemma sometimes posed by the "no harm" attitude is seen in the debate over circumcision of infants. My personal feeling is that the freedom and dignity of the child supersedes the prerogatives of religious tradition. To me, cutting a boy's foreskin without his awareness and permission is a prime example of doing harm while meaning well by blindly following cultural practices from another era. This subject of male infant circumcision is explored philosophically but with great understanding at Primum Non Nocere.

First, Do No Harm is good advice from a great healer in an ancient time. Anytime a person or a philosophy is still "alive and kicking" after a few millennium or so, I cannot help but feel that perhaps I should take it seriously. I find this philosophical perception more than just another adage expressed with pretty words in a clever verbal pattern.

Primum Non Nocere: To act only as necessary but always with humility and courage and compassion.