First, harm no student

To become a medical doctor, medical students must take an oath that follows along the line of Hippocrates’s personal motto, “First, do no harm”*. Anyone who works in or has an influence in the field of education should be required to make a similar oath, “First, harm no student”.

While a child may see their doctor a handful of times a year, that same child will see their teacher about 180 days out of the year. Who, then, do you think will have a greater influence on your child? I would wager that when most people think back to individuals who have changed their lives, teachers will pop up a lot more often than doctors. I'm not saying that doctors aren't important to children, but that they normally do not get to spend enough time with a child to build the same kind of relationships that teachers can and sometimes do. Obviously, as a generalized statement, this is not always the case for every doctor out there.

Educators have an awesome responsibility to mold and form the minds of tomorrow. As educators, we should all take care to harm no student and make that the basis of all our education related decisions. But what does it mean to do no harm to our students? That will be the subject of the next post.

*Yes, I am aware that this does not actually appear anywhere in any version of the Hippocratic Oath itself.